


Runeterra High - New Class

by Archer06



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Follow up from my other fic, I'm deliberately going to add more dad Zed to this one because it's cute, Kayn is having serious flashbacks, Lighthearted dumb fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 41,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25309600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archer06/pseuds/Archer06
Summary: A whole new set of students transfer to Runeterra High bringing their own brand of crazy to this school. Meanwhile Kayn is still trying to recover from Rhaast's influence over him and move on from the events in the last fic.
Relationships: Aphelios/Sett (League of Legends), Ekko/Taliyah (League of Legends), Shieda Kayn/Zoe, Talon Du Couteau/Varus
Comments: 218
Kudos: 278





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please read my other fic Runeterra High before reading this one. A lot of events that happen in the other fic are going to be mentioned and referenced in this one without going over them in detail. Think of this as season 2 to this fic and you need to see season 1 to understand everything that's happening. 
> 
> For those that followed through the last fic, I'm back :D Sorry for the delay on this. Lockdown and quarantine has been really hard on my writing. There's something ironic about having all the time in the world to write and yet lacking the inspiration to do so. But i hope you enjoy this start to the new fic. To answer any questions, yes the main gang from the last fic are still the main characters here. They just get some new additions to the group :)

Kayn

I feel that I’m meditating a lot more these days than I used to. I don’t really know why either. The main reason I needed to focus my mind is gone. That problem is sorted. A prickle of goosebumps run up my bare arms as I think about it and my body starts to shiver. Focus. Just focus. He’s not here anymore Kayn, but you are. You’re still here.

I regulate my breathing, calming my mind and focusing. Blocking out whatever argument Rakan and Xayah are having next door or whatever I can hear coming from the room above me. Just focus.

“Three, two, one,” I say, my eyes still shut before I roll aside and hear the thud onto my floor of someone faceplanting into it. Opening my eyes, I smirk over at the girl that pushes herself up. Her nose now red and a scowl covering her face.

“I hate that you can now tell that,” she huffs, folding her slender arms and hopping into the air. She hovers there, about a foot above the floor, her legs crossed and her long, multicoloured hair drifting around her.

“Really? I think that’s the best thing to happen to me since my change,” I smirk, leaning back onto my bedroom wall. Her heterochromatic eyes narrow at me, her lips pulling together into a tight pout.

“Fine. I won’t tell you what I know. I’ll just head back off. Neeko cared when I told her. But clearly you don’t care. Here I am being such an amazing friend, but nooooo, you don’t care,” she says with a huff.

“If you tell me, will you go?” I ask, watching the look of indignation that sweeps over her face.

“You are the worst boyfriend ever. Rakan wouldn’t be like that to Xayah,” she tells me as I just point to the wall where the sound of Rakan whining and Xayah ranting about something can be heard. “He’s still better than you.”

“Go on Zoe,” I say, cocking my head at her, because clearly this is something she wants to tell me and I won’t lose her until she has done so.

“Are you interested or are you just trying to shift me?”

“Both.”

“At least you’re honest,” she sighs, shaking her head before bouncing forward and landing on the floor in front of me, her eyes wide as she grins. “We’re getting new students!”

“So?” I ask. New students aren’t exactly a big deal. Zoe’s best friend, Neeko, only started a few months ago. Whether of course Zoe remembers that is an entirely different thing.

“So? So? So new people! Doesn’t this sound super exciting? Because, apparently it’s not just one or two people, but a whole load. Some school across town is having to shut for a while for renovations, so some of the students are coming here. There’ll be loads of new people. This is so super exciting,” she squeals. New people? Well at least they won’t know I turned into a demon a while back and tried to kill everyone in the school. They’ll likely find out pretty quick, but I might be able to have a conversation with one of them before they learn that.

An image flashes before my eyes. Zoe standing before me, tears running from her eyes as a blood red scythe is embedded into her arm. A scythe I only just managed to stop. Instinctively I wrap my arms around myself and stare at my floor. Focus Kayn. Focus on the here and now. That’s done with. It’s in the past. Zoe is here. She’s here with you.

“Hey, no, you ok?” She shuffles closer to me, her hand resting gently on my shaking arm. I give a brief nod, my eyes still staring at the carpet, almost boring a hole into it. One day I’m sure I’ll be fine. One day I’ll be able to think about what happened and see it as nothing more than a bad memory. But I’m a long way off from that.

“You want ice cream? We can go get ice cream if you want. Or, um, we can watch a movie? We can go and bug Talon if you’d like? Or Ekko?” I try and snap myself out of it, but I just look to her arm. If she’s ever in a short-sleeved top now, she wears a gold band around part of her arm. A large pink, diamond shaped gem sits in the centre of it, and it hides the scar across her arm. The scar I caused.

Come on, focus, just focus. Breathe in and out Kayn. I close my eyes, trying to keep my mind calm. Blocking more images from coming into my head. Because when I remember, I freak out even more.

Gently, I feel her arms wrap around me. Her head resting on my chest, her breathing slowly matching mine. She’s warm. A reassuring warmth that spreads through me. This is Zoe’s magic. She’s using it to calm me down. To remind me that I’m not alone. That I have her.

“Ice cream sounds good,” I whisper after a minute or two. Opening up my eyes I see that my room hasn’t changed at all. It’s still here. The same as it was before. A face pops up before me, her eyes almost sparkling as she nods at me.

“Good choice,” she tells me, her voice unnaturally calm for her. “Just us or shall we grab the others?”

“Well if we don’t invite the others, I have no doubt we’ll both hear about it from someone,” I allow a smile onto my face which seems to ease some of the worry she’s trying to hide.

“Great. Let’s grab Talon. Although you might want to change first. Unless you want to grab ice cream in your training clothes,” a slight smirk pulls at her lips and I glance down at my loose tank top and baggy trousers.

“Yeah, I guess,” I nod, standing up as her arms slip from around me. “You go grab Neeko while I change. And Zoe, no portals. They make people feel ill.” Zoe seems to forget this fact. She can pop in and out of her portals at will. It’s how she got into my room. However, while I can travel through them with her without feeling sick, seems everyone else gets just a little bit queasy.

“Fine, fine. No portals. At least not for Neeko. I can use them as much as I like,” she brags before falling backwards and vanishing into one leaving me alone in my room.

I find myself glancing, as I often do, over to the desk pushed up against my windowsill. There’s nothing overly special about it, and right now it has several pages of handwritten coursework on it, which I do need to finish at some point. And while the coursework is accompanied by books and pens and other things you’d expect to find on a desk, it’s missing something. It’s missing a cat.

Pulling my tank top over my head, I pause by my long mirror and look at myself. A stranger’s bright blue eyes looking back at me. Absently I raise one of my dark hands to my pale face and trace my finger over the weird markings that surround my eyes before also tracing my finger around the ones that bleed off my arms and onto my pale chest.

I never used to have these. My skin used to be warmer in colour, no weird markings to be seen. My eyes used to be amber and not the vibrant blue they are now. Not to mention my hair used to not occasionally float on its own accord. Thinking about it causes it to sway behind me, moving like Zoe’s hair moves. I close my eyes, concentrating on it until I feel it drop down, behaving like anyone else’s hair should behave.

My name is Shieda Kayn. I used to be human. Just a regular human. Then I made a deal with a darkin named Rhaast. It was a dumb deal and nearly killed me and my friends. But I won. I defeated him. And all it cost me was my humanity. Because I’m not human anymore. I’m now part darkin too. Part of the same creature that tried to kill those I care for. And that thought terrifies me.


	2. Chapter 2

Kayn

Getting dressed into clothes with a little more personality than my bland training clothes makes me feel a little more me. I’m still pulling on my leather jacket as I leave my room; Xayah and Rakan still having a heated discussion over something next door. Shaking my head at whatever it is, I head to a nearby room, my knuckle rapping over the white wooden door.

Inside I can hear the sound of someone watching something. I’d say it’s coming from a TV, but the person who’s room this is doesn’t own a TV. He owns a laptop. I knock again, lounging around until I hear the door unlock.

My best friend Talon appears, his usual hood up over his head hiding his brown hair from view. I smirk at him and gesture behind me though there’s no one else on the corridor.

“Ice cream. You in?” I say as he just scowls at me before opening his door wider. I glance into his room before smiling over to the other guy sat on Talon’s bed watching the laptop I could hear. “Hey Varus. You want to come grab ice cream? Zoe’s just gone to round up Neeko.”

“Er, yeah sure,” he nods, smiling at me while Talon mouths the words ‘I hate you’. I just smirk at my friend as the other guy pauses the laptop and hunts for his jacket.

“No you don’t,” I smirk at Talon, his face still scowling at me.

“I very much could though,” he whispers as Varus walks over to us and my friend goes beetroot red.

“I’m guessing this was Zoe’s idea?” Varus says adjusting the collar on his jacket.

“Nah, I figured I really wanted a sundae because that seemed like a valid reason to totally interrupt my meditation. Of course it was Zoe’s idea. If you’re hanging out with us more you need to realise that every dumb thing we do is normally Zoe’s idea,” I shrug.

“I dunno. You’re pretty good at coming up with dumb shit too,” Talon retorts, his face still red, but now he smirks at me before he darts into his room and grabs his wallet and keys.

“Not as dumb as her,” I reply as we head towards the stairs and go up a level to grab Ekko.

It’s while we’re walking to the shopping centre that Talon slips over to me, his pace matching mine. Zoe is ahead, bouncing around Neeko like a hyped-up pinball while Ekko discusses something with Varus. I look at Talon, my eyes meeting his and I know that look on his face. That’s a look of worry.

“So, what was it this time?” He asks softly. I glance away from him, my eyes going to the girl ahead of me with the multicoloured hair.

“What was what?”

“Zoe deciding on ice cream to settle your mind. What triggered an episode this time?” He asks. I could lie. I could tell him he’s all wrong. But me and Talon have made a pact. No matter what, we be truthful to each other. Hiding things from each other got us into a pretty shit mess.

“Who even knows,” I sigh my eyes just watching Zoe ahead of us. “It fucking sucks Talon. I’m scared of my own mind. I’m scared of thinking about things. I hate being scared. But I am. Constantly.”

“Scared of what?” he asks, his voice calm. Talon is always pretty calm. Which in our group is a rare trait.

“Of him coming back,” I whisper, hoping no one else can hear me. I don’t think they can. It’s a thought I’ve voiced to Zoe before, but I can do without the others knowing. It’s not a fear I like to say, but it’s true. I’m so goddamn scared by that thought.

“He won’t Kayn. You defeated him,” Talon reminds me with a gentle smile.

“It’s easy to say,” I sigh. “But it wasn’t your head he was in. Sometimes I think I see him or hear him. It freaks me out.”

“It will I guess,” he shrugs, lowering his voice as we catch up with the others at a crossing. Zoe is pressing the button for the lights nonstop as if that will make it go any faster. Varus and Ekko are still chatting. Ekko likes to wind Varus up about the fact that Varus talks to himself. Varus doesn’t talk to himself, he apparently talks to the people he shares a body with. Varus is a darkin. A successful one. He took over his hosts body, their souls trapped within him, but they seem to have a pretty chill relationship. Not like the one that tried to take over me.

A hand grips at my arm and I look to Talon, his eyes steady as he holds me, and I realise that my breathing had started to get a little erratic.

“It’s ok,” I say softly, as the traffic lights change and we can start to cross. Zoe glances over her shoulder at me just briefly before allowing a smile onto her face and then starting to bunny hop across the zebra crossing lines. Neeko is just a step behind her, giggling as she does so.

“So what was it that triggered you earlier?” Talon asks, slowing his pace and allowing the others to get ahead of us again. I shake my head.

“Just flashbacks. Can’t even remember what started them. Doesn’t really matter I guess. They just keep popping up,” I admit, a shiver as I try to block it from my mind. Talon’s arm moves to go around my shoulders, despite me being taller than him.

“Ice cream should help. And if it doesn’t you know she’s only going to throw sprinkles at you. Again.”

“She’ll get us banned from this place if she continues to do that,” I smirk.

“Are you kidding? She spends a fortune there. I think they’d be happy to lose a few sprinkles over the amount of time Zoe spends there,” Talon laughs.

The local shopping centre isn’t too big. I know there are bigger ones, but it serves its purpose. It’s within walking distance from the school and has plenty of shops and food options to keep most of us students busy over the weekends. Heading round to the entrance, the crowds around us get steadily bigger. Not bustling, just more people coming and going past us. Shakily I step onto an escalator into the building, trying to block out the buzz of chatter that is now around me. Currently I seem to prefer a nice middle ground in terms of people around me. By myself is too lonely, but too many people and I feel claustrophobic. It’s pathetic really.

“I am going to get both a sundae and a milkshake. I want one of those milkshakes with the ice cream on the top shaped like a bunny,” Zoe literally exclaims, popping up beside me from a portal, her hand grabbing onto mine as she drops to the ground, walking along beside me. Her thumb strokes over my hand as she continues to decide her desserts.

“Yeah? You trying to make yourself sick?” Talon asks, looking past me and over to her. His arm is no longer around my shoulders, but his hand has grabbed my arm again, holding me steady. They both know I’m having a moment. They both know I’m not perfectly ok. So they’re trying to give me something to focus on. Something mundane.

“If she’s sick, I’m not looking after her,” I say, my voice almost cracking. Almost but not quite. I just need to focus.

“You’d be a terrible sick buddy. I wouldn’t want you to help me. I’d ask Talon, he’s nicer than you,” Zoe huffs. Beside me Talon just shakes his head, chuckling slightly to himself.

“You’re dating him, not me. Surely that’s his job?”

“But he’d be bad at it,” Zoe whines, dragging me around to the food court and the ice cream shop that’s there.

Once it’s in view I focus on that. I block out everyone around me. Everyone but those with me. It’s hard. I feel like people are constantly looking at me. Like they know how I used to look and know that this isn’t right. The logical part of my mind tells me how dumb that is. I mean, in our group you have Zoe and her crazy hair, Varus and his purple claw like hands and then Neeko who’s half lizard. No one is looking at my face markings or my hands. But I still feel like they are.

“Neeko can never decide what I want,” Neeko sighs as we reach the café, my heart beating wildly at this point. Zoe leads me over to a booth, pushing me up into the corner and firmly seating herself next to me. Talon sits across from me, Varus beside him and then Neeko beside Varus. Ekko I believe has the joy of being next to Zoe too.

“I want the bunny milkshake,” Zoe tells us all. “But I want like proper ice cream too. It seems so dumb to come here and not have proper ice cream.”

“Doesn’t the milkshake have a scoop of ice-cream on it?” Varus asks, looking somewhat confused. He should know that there is no limit to the amount of ice cream Zoe can eat.

“Yeah, because how else can they make it look like a bunny?” Zoe says as though that should be obvious. “But it’s not a lot of ice cream is it? Like if I get a sundae too, then I have tons of ice-cream.”

“Neeko will have the unicorn sundae. That one looks very tasty,” Neeko smiles, leaning onto the table. Neeko is almost too friendly for her own good. She’s a vastaya but an old race. A long multicoloured lizard tail sits behind her while patterns of green, pink and purple cover her skin, especially her hands.

“What a surprise, Neeko picking the ice cream with the most colours in it,” Ekko smirks from where he’s sat, his eyes looking over the menu before him. Unlike over half of us here, Ekko is a normal guy. Though he does have an unhealthy obsession with tinkering with things. He’s been responsible for more midnight fire drills in the dorms than any other student.

“What a surprise, Ekko taking forever to pick something,” Talon smirks over at him. “So where’s Taliyah? You just not inviting her out with us?” At that we all pause and peer down the table to the other guy who suddenly gets visibly more awkward.

“She’s um, busy,” he says, holding that menu just a little higher. Taliyah is Ekko’s girlfriend and is way too good for him. He’s a dork and she’s lovely. “She’s helping Sona with some music stuff.”

“Neeko likes to listen to Sona play music. She is very good,” Neeko nods.

“I could play music if I wanted to,” Zoe brags.

“No, you freaking can’t,” I tell her, my voice still sounding more hoarse than it should. She turns to scowl at me.

“I’m going to find an instrument when we get back to school and prove to you I can.”

“Zoe, I’ve had music lessons with you. I watched you try and play a recorder upside down. Sona is a musician. You are not,” I half smile at her.

Once we’ve had our orders taken and others have agreed with me that Zoe is in no way a musician, my excitable girlfriend gets to share her new knowledge with more people.

“By the way, have you guys all heard? New students are starting soon? Like loads of them. How exciting is that?” She leans on the table as we wait for our desserts.

“Ah yeah, I heard about that. Lucien mentioned something to Garen and I heard in passing,” Ekko says. “Apparently his girlfriend will be starting.”

“So he does have one,” Zoe clicks her fingers as I side eye her.

“He posts pictures of her online,” I remind her.

“Yeah, but photoshop Kayn. I used to make photos of me and Ezreal, doesn’t mean they were real,” she laughs.

“Yeah, but Lucien isn’t batshit crazy like you,” I remind her, earning myself a punch to the arm and a pout as she looks away.

“He’s just jealous Zoe that you never photoshopped him in photos,” Talon smirks at me.

“Oh I’ve photoshopped photos of him before,” she adds in smugly, a grin cast towards me. I’m not even going to ask. I don’t want to know.

“Please tell me the colour pink was involved?” Ekko asks, a smile over his face. Zoe doesn’t even need to reply. From her grin I know that’s exactly what she’s done.

“Anyone else heard anything about them? The new people. Not my amazing photoshop skills. Though if anyone wants to see Kayn in a dress just let me know,” Zoe grins her eyes looking at the others.

“Only that there’s quite a few of them,” Varus adds in. “That’s all.”

“When are they starting?” Talon asks, looking at the girl bouncing beside me.

“Soon. I think. At least I hope. Because new people starting sounds awesome. Maybe we can make friends with some of them. Maybe they’ll want to hang out with me,” she squeals.

“We’d need a bigger booth then,” Ekko points out smirking.

“What? Nah. We can lose some dead weight,” Zoe grins, turning to smirk at him.

“Oh I’m the dead weight?” Ekko stares at her.

“Look, ok Ekko, someone needed to tell you this. Neeko is like my best friend and the only other girl in the group so she stays. Talon is really good friends with Neeko, so he stays. He’s dating Varus so Varus stays. Then there’s you,” she gestures at him. I watch his eyes meet mine over her head and all I can do is shrug.

“Er, what about Kayn?” He points at me.

“Oh he’s dead weight too. The two of you can be the ones that drag a table over when I have all my new friends,” she laughs.

“Sparkles, I’m surprised we’re your friends. I don’t know how many more you’re expecting to con into this deal,” Ekko jokes.

I leave them arguing with each other, my eyes staring at the table in front of me. Having new people join school won’t be bad. It’ll be nice to see some new faces. I just wish one of those new faces wasn’t mine.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing two of our new main characters, Sett and Aphelios :D

Aphelios

Walking up to a faded green door, I knock loudly on it before rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet. Inside the house I hear people yelling stuff and allow a slight smirk to come onto my face. It’ll be a while longer before anyone answers with the sound of it.

My eyes look at the neat little front garden. The small patch of grass surrounded by flowers and the broken garden gnome whose head is very awkwardly glued back on. I knock again and hear the yelling start up again. I hear the word ‘door’ being yelled several times. Turning behind me I shrug at the car parked on the pavement. My sister Alune just smiles from the window, shaking her head. This is the reason we set off early.

` Eventually the door opens and I smile at the lady standing there. Her long white hair is hanging loose around her shoulders, and her furry white ears are drooping low. There’s a strained smile on her face. Not strained because of me, but strained because of the person I can still hear stamping around upstairs.

“Aphelios, how lovely to see you,” she smiles reaching out to give me a tight hug before the sound of something falling upstairs reverberates through the house. Her ears flick downwards further as she sighs. “I’m beyond knowing whether that was him or his luggage. Settrigh, Aphelios is here for you!”

“I know ma. I told you it was him,” I hear Sett yell from upstairs followed by more banging.

“I’m so sorry he’s not ready yet. Are you looking forward to starting at Runeterra High?” she asks me. I just smile and nod. To be honest I don’t think it’ll be as bad as I’ve been worried about. Staying in dorms will be different to school so far, but it should be ok. 

“You’ll have to send me a photo of you and Alune in your uniforms. I bet you’ll both look so smart,” she waves at the car behind me before stepping back into the house and calling up the stairs. “Settrigh, get down here now.”

There’s a pause before the stamping upstairs starts to descend the stairs. I hear Sett complaining before I see him. He’s wearing some loose black trousers and not much else. His red hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed today, which it probably hasn’t.

“Ma you told me to pack. I’m packing,” he says before smirking at me.

“I told you to pack last night. Aphelios is here and you’re still messing around. And what happened to the shirt you had on?” His mum gestures at him. Sett just smirks at me before flexing his arms. It’s no lie, Sett has an amazing build. And if I’m honest I don’t mind seeing it first thing in the morning.

“Thought I’d give Phel a morning treat,” he winks, clearly enjoying the way my cheeks have started to blush. His mum is having none of it and smacks him round the back of the head.

“Settrigh. Finish packing and get some clothes on. It’s lovely of Mr and Mrs Kale to drive you round to your new school. Don’t make them regret it because you have no concept of time keeping,” she gestures back to the stairs. Sett scowls, rubbing the back of his head.

“Fine, fine. I’m goin’. I’ll get my crap,” he huffs, heading back to the stairs.

His mum waits until he’s gone and the sounds of him throwing stuff around start up again. Goodness knows what he’s packing. His mum looks at me, a slight hint of worry on her face, her sharp claws wringing in front of her.

“You’ll look after him, won’t you Aphelios?” she asks, her voice quiet. “I know he’s growing up, but you know what he can be like. I’m just worried all those kids there are going to be all sorts of stuck up. I don’t want him to feel isolated or anything.” I just smile, nodding my head and giving her a thumbs up. That seems to ease her mind as she smiles again before going up the stairs to find wherever her son is.

I wait a few more minutes, hearing his mum yell at him to put a shirt on and to make sure he’s packed everything. There’s some discussion over things he seems to think he needs but his mum doesn’t. Eventually she returns carrying two small carryall bags. She rolls her eyes at me and places them on the doorstep. Behind her I hear Sett mumbling to himself as he carries a much larger case down.

“Is all of this even going to fit in their car?” his mum gestures at his bags.

“Phel said they’re taking the big car. I mean it’s gotta fit his and Lunie’s stuff in,” Sett says, reappearing and now wearing a black shirt. White lettering on the front says ‘The Boss’, it’s his favourite shirt. I nod at her. We’ve brought my dad’s large car. It’ll fit the three of us and our luggage in.

I pick up one of Sett’s bags, finding it to be a lot heavier than his mum made it look. What’s he bringing? You know what? I don’t even want to know. His mum fusses over him, hugging him and giving him a kiss on his cheeks while he just blushes, his furry ears drooping down. I smirk at him.

“Ma, I’m only going across town. And you put me down for this fancy school. I’ll be fine. I’ll call you once I have my stuff in my room ok? Ok? Right good. Love ya ma,” he grins, grabbing the rest of his stuff and pushing me down his short path. Alune gets out of the car and gestures for me to give her the bag I have, but I just shake my head. My sister will not manage this. I don’t know how I am.

“Hey Sett. Thought you’d decided not to come,” Alune smiles at him.

“And miss the chance to live at school? Lunie, come on. Sounds so much fun,” he smirks sarcastically before taking his stuff round to our car boot. Mine and my sister’s stuff is in the backseat of the people carrier.

“I think it sounds fun,” she smiles at him before getting back into the car.

“I think it sounds like hell,” Sett mutters, taking the bag that I have. “How about you? Fun, or hell?” I just wave my hand in an undecided fashion.

“Wrong answer Phel. Side with me not her,” he laughs, closing the boot and heading round to the car but not before he stops to wave back at his mum.

“Bye ma! I’ll ring ok?” He calls over. She waves at him, dabbing at her eyes as he gets into the car.

“Good morning Sett. You all ready?” My mum asks him as he slides in, me sandwiched between him and my sister.

“Is no an acceptable answer?” he jokes. I watch him wave again out of the window to his mum though as we pull off. The way his eyes follow back to his house as we drive off. Reaching over I slip my hand into his, squeezing it.

“It’ll be fine,” he tells me, a slight waver to his voice. Sett thinks the world of his mum. She raised him ever since his dad walked out on them years ago. And even he realises that raising him can’t have been easy. Sett has a bad habit of getting into fights with literally anyone.

“I’ve been doing some research into the school, they teach loads of different lessons, have two gyms, a running track, an entire performing arts department and their grades are the top of any school in this area,” my sister gushes. Sett looks over to her.

“Yeah, also had some weird event happen there a few weeks back. I mean are we just walking into some school that might be attacked or somethin’?”

“Couldn’t really find much info out on that I’m afraid,” Alune admits. I know a lot of us want to know. A girl in Sett’s class, Senna, has a boyfriend that goes to Runeterra High already, but apparently even he’s being pretty quiet about things. All I know is that some kids got injured with several needing to go to hospital for severe wounds.

“No one can. Don’t worry Phel, anyone tries anything on you and I’ll make ‘em regret it,” he boasts, his hand leaving mine and his thick arm swinging around my shoulders and pulling me into him.

“Sure. Tell me Sett, who’s protecting Phel from you?” Alune asks, a sly grin on her face. Do I not get a say in any of this? I mean I don’t right now because I can’t quite free one of my hands from between me and Sett to sign to my sister.

“No need for anyone Lunie. You know I ain’t letting Phel get hurt,” Sett chuckles.

As odd as it’s going to be starting at a new school, I am glad that I’ll at least have Sett and Alune there with me. It’s just, I know they’ll be able to make friends a lot easier than I will. People don’t tend to want to be friends with someone they can’t understand.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't wait for Sett ad Aphelios to meet with our regular crew :) I promise it's coming soon, but first the boys have to actually get into the school lol.

Aphelios

Runeterra High is insane.

That is my absolute first thought as we drive through the main gate and round to a car park. Sett has his face pressed up to the window as we pass building after building. Some have single floors, some look like they have several. They’re all made of pale stone with large glass windows and wide glass doors.

“This place is fancy,” Sett mutters, his breath fogging up the window as I peer around him. My dad follows a sign for the dorms, past picnic benches under trees and large grassy areas with students sitting on them chatting.

“That girl over there is a vastaya,” Alune says, looking out of her window. Both me and Sett turn to look. A pretty girl with long black hair and several fox tails is walking down the grass talking to another girl with bright red hair.

“My ma said somethin’ about that. Said there’s quite a few here. Said I ain’t going to be the only furry on site,” he sniggers. Tapping my sister on her shoulder I sign to her, a smile coming to her face.

“Phel says he doubts she phrased it quite like that.”

“Whether she phrased it like that or not, it’s true right?” Pulling my phone out I type a message and show him the screen.

_That’s a shame. You won’t be unique anymore._

“Maybe not, but I’m your furry,” he barks a laugh causing me to blush while Alune just rolls her eyes.

“You two are the worst.”

“Best Lunie. I think you meant best,” Sett corrects her as we stop before a large building and my dad parks the car.

“Are those the dorms?” Alune asks looking at two similar looking buildings near each other. There’s a desk set up near the door of one, several students hanging around. Looking over I can see Senna and her parents. My sister does too as she opens her door and dashes over to the other girl.

“You think we go there?” Sett asks, looking at me as I just shrug.

“You guys go find out where you need to go. We’ll get your stuff from the car,” my mum smiles at me.

“Ah, leave mine in Mrs K. They’re heavy. I’ll grab those,” Sett says, opening his door and getting out. I follow him, the two of us heading over to where Alune is chatting to Senna. The other girl’s parents are talking to a Runeterra student beside the desk. Sett looks at me and shrugs before standing by the desk.

“Yo, we’re new. Where we gotta go?” Sett asks. Sitting behind the desk is a pretty girl with super pale purple hair. It almost looks white. A gold horn protrudes from her forehead as her purple skin is covered in darker purple markings

“Hi, welcome to Runeterra High. I’m Soraka and I’ll be helping you today. Can I have your names please?”

“Er yeah. I’m Sett and this is Aphelios,” Sett says, his eyes looking up at the buildings around us. “You guys really live in school huh?”

“Yes, these are the dorms here. Boys dorm is this one, the girls is the one just slightly behind it. They’ll be a little quiet this week due to a school holiday so hopefully you’ll be able to settle in easier.” She starts to thumb through several envelopes she has in front of her, checking names before also looking at a rack of keys she has.

“Right let me see. I have your keys and room numbers here. You’re both on the third floor of the boys dorm. There’s a lift inside for your luggage if you need it. I also have your welcome packs. These have maps in them and your timetables. Feel free to have a wander through school. Most buildings are open though classrooms are locked up currently. But feel free to explore. I’ll be here all day today so if you have any further questions feel free to ask me,” she smiles, passing over envelopes to us as well as room keys.

Sett passes me over an envelope with my name on the front and I’ve barely opened it when a short girl with brightly coloured hair seems to literally fall from the sky, landing on some nearby grass giggling to herself. Where did she even come from?

“Hey Soraka! Hey new people,” she calls over, waving a phone around in the air.

“Give me my damn phone!” Someone else yells out. A guy about our age jumping out of a wall and somehow landing on the grass before giving chase after the girl who just squeals and starts to dash away.

“Phel, I need to you help me here. Did that guy just jump through a wall? And did that girl just appear?” I nod my head, watching the other guy chase the girl before the girl seems to vanish into the ground, the guy falling into the grass as he tries to get her. There’s a frustrated yell from him as he jumps back up.

“I can sense you now Zoe! You can’t hide from me now!”

“I did say mostly quiet this week,” Soraka half laughs. “Ignore those two. You’ll likely see them around. In fact you’ll definitely see Zoe around. I imagine having new people starting at the school is something she’ll be very excited by. She’s harmless, just a little crazy. Anyway, if you need anything further, just let me know.” I nod, but my eyes still follow where the other guy has run off. Sett’s definitely right, he did jump through a wall.

There are tears as my parents leave. They hug both me and my sister, tell us they’re proud of us before heading off. We both promise to call them tonight. I’ll admit I have a lump in my throat. I’ve never lived away from home. This is weird.

Alune heads off to the girls dorms with Senna while I follow Sett into the boys. There are a couple of people sitting in the foyer and chatting. Several look over at us as we pass. I offer a small smile as I drag my case behind me, a heavy bag slung over my shoulder. Sett’s carting all of his stuff in, carrying it easily.

“This whole thing is weird right?” He says to me once we’ve managed to play tetris and get our luggage and us into a lift. I nod my head. It feels almost surreal. “I mean this place is fancy as fuck. What the hell we doin’ here Phel?” I shrug as the lift pings at the third floor and we both get out.

We’re just unloading our things when a boy with a white mohawk dashes from his room, realises he hasn’t locked his door and then runs back, a phone stuck to his ear.

“Well where’s he? He’ll be pissed at you. No, keep doing it. I’m on my way,” he sniggers, dashing towards the stairs without even so much as a glance at us. Why does everyone here seem to be in such a hurry? I’m not really a run around sort of person. What if I don’t fit in that well? I mean making friends when you can’t talk is hard enough as it is.

“Alright then. Room numbers. Room numbers. What rooms have we got.,” Sett says, looking at his room number and snapping me out of my worry. “Ah, this is yours Phel and mine is…er…here. Found mine. Need any help getting your stuff in?” Sett asks, his ears twitching about. He’s nervous too. He’ll never admit it, but I can tell. Smiling I give a nod, watching the grin that breaks over his face.

“Cool. Lets get your room set up first.”

My first port of call is to fish around in the bag on my shoulder and remove a hanging white board and find a pen for it. I’ll hang this on a hook on the back of my door, but first I need to use it.

“Gotta say, you haven’t got a great view. You’re looking straight at the school buildings,” Sett laughs, peering out of my window. I tap the pen on the board and the message I’ve already written there, the noise catches his attention and he turns to look at me, reading my note.

_You ok? You seem a little nervous._

He does this thing he does, straightening his back and pulling his shoulders back, making himself look bigger as though he’s about to brag. A smirk comes to his lips his finger pointing at me as he goes to talk and then, he pauses. His ears drop as do his shoulders and he glances away.

“It’s a bit overwhelming don’t ya think? Like not just a new school, but a new school we gotta live at.” I nod to put his mind at ease. It is. Turning back to my board I wipe away my message and write a new one.

_Help me unpack and then we can go for a walk. Check it all out._

That perks him back up as he nods, his ears returning upright. I’m fairly certain the whole unpacking process would have been smoother if I did it myself, but it is more fun with Sett.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double upload :) Two cute chapters for the price of one :)
> 
> Also titled 'Sett and Zoe not allowing their other halves to sleep' XD I hope you enjoy them ^_^

Sett

“Yeah it’s all fine,” I swagger before my phone, holding it up so my ma can see my face. And only my face. No need to let her see my room. She smiles at me before trying to peer behind me.

“Have you unpacked everything?” She asks and I glance to the bags laid over my floor that are still very full.

“Sorta. I was helping Phel with his room first. Then we explored. So my room is sorta done. Like not fully. We’ll check mine out tomorrow y’know?” I ramble somewhat. My room is no where near done. Not even close. But if she finds that out I’ll get an earful from her about it all.

“And have you met any of your new classmates?” she asks me. She’s just so full of that eager hope parents have for their kids.

“Not like personally. There was the intro girl. Can’t remember her name though. Saw another vastaya student,” I admit, pulling my lips into a pout while my ma just grins.

“That’s wonderful. Did you talk to them?” She asks and I just shake my head.

“Er nah. We were still in the car. But yay, I’m not the only weirdo,” I wave my free hand about near my face. I probably still am. That girl looked like she was a full vastayan. Not like me. I’m only half.

“Settrigh, you’re not weird. How many times do I have to tell you that? Now get a good nights sleep and make sure you sort your room out tomorrow. I’m sure Aphelios will help you. Goodnight son,” she smiles, blowing a kiss at the camera.

“Night ma,” I smile back before hanging up. I stare at my reflection in my phone screen for a moment, my dumb tufty ears twitching.

How in the hell have I ended up at boarding school? Nothing about this sounds enjoyable or somewhere I want to be. I fall onto my bed, hearing it squeak below me as I try and get comfy. I haven’t even unpacked my new bedding yet. This duvet just feels wrong. The mattress feels wrong. Where’s my bed? I liked my bed at home.

I pull the duvet around myself and try and sleep, but I don’t like it. My window keeps creaking and I can hear other people. Someone down my corridor seems to be singing and I can hear people in the room below me. Grunting, I grab my pillow and slam it over my ears. But like hell this is comfortable.

Maybe people will be quiet? Maybe if I just focus like super hard on going to sleep then I’ll actually be able to. Like hell that’ll work.

I lay there, listening to all these weird new sounds and realising how odd it is to not hear my ma in her room down the hall from me. It’s not even like she makes a lot of noise, but it’s knowing she’s there. Like if she gets up for a drink of water in the night or somethin’.

After what seems like a freakin’ age of not being able to sleep, I decide this is dumb. Throwing back my duvet I head over to my door, slowly opening it. The hallway is lit with dim lights, but everything else seems pretty quiet now. How long have I been tossing and turning? Slipping out, I pull my door shut behind me and edge over to another door, knocking on it before pressing my face to it.

“Phel,” I hiss, knocking again. “Phel, it’s me.” I stand around, hoping no one else comes out of their rooms because I ain’t about to waste time explainin’ what I’m doin’ out here in my shorts. “Phel!”

I stand there, slowly knocking on the door until I see the handle pull down and look into the very sleepy face of my boyfriend.

“Hey,” I grin, watching him rub his eyes. His baggy black t-shirt is hanging off one of his pale shoulders and he looks too freakin’ cute. He pulls his hands up before him, making a fist with one and interlocking both his little fingers together. Apparently it’s ‘S’ in sign language, but that’s what he does for my name. He did once try spelling my name out to me but there was a lot of gestures and I got confused. So he simplified it for me. From the cock of his head I’m guessing it’s a question.

“I couldn’t sleep. Thought I could come in,” I keep my grin on my face as he steps back and gestures into his room. Eagerly I bound in, watching him shut the door. Waiting on no invitation, I head over to his bed. See his is actually made with bedding and stuff. It’s only now I realise I hadn’t even put a bottom sheet on my bed. No wonder I couldn’t sleep.

He points over at me and makes the symbol for ok with his hand before he heads over and gets in the bed beside me. These things are stupidly narrow. How are two people supposed to fit in one of these? His body presses into mine as we both manage to fit. His bright violet eyes look at me, almost sparkling even though the room is in darkness. But then again, I always think Phel looks the prettiest in low light. Dunno why. Night is just his element I guess.

“I dunno,” I sigh, assuming he asked me if I’m ok. “Think I might be a little homesick.” I hate admitting weakness. I’d never do it to anyone else. But Phel is different.

Almost instinctively his arms come around me, holding me to him. I curl into him. Wrapping my strong arms around his body, my face resting onto his chest. I feel one of his hands slip into my unruly hair, his fingers gently starting to stroke my ears. I hate them, but Phel thinks they’re adorable and seems to enjoy any chance he can to pet them.

“You’re homesick too, right?” I ask, my words spoken into his scrawny chest. His fingers pause on my head and I feel him tap me twice. That’s yes. Given he’s mute – and learning to talk with your hands is freakin’ hard – we had to come up with some signal so we can talk to each other. One tap is no, two is yes. Or if he holds one finger up or two, the same applies.

“See I thought it was just me being a dumb baby. Bet the others aren’t homesick,” I mumble, a touch of petulance to my tone. His fingers go back to stroking my ears as I relax them, enjoying his touch. I find my eyes shutting as I enjoy just being held by him.

There’s a slight tickle in my throat and I know what’s coming and it makes me so freakin’ embarrassed every time I do it. But I can’t help it. All my stress and anxiety from just moments ago seems to have gone, my entire body relaxing as he just strokes me. The moment I start to purr, I feel his chest start to vibrate from the giggles he’s supressing.

“Don’t laugh,” I whisper, squeezing him tighter before I start to do it again. Why the fuck do I purr? Who the fuck else purrs? Do other vastaya do it? Does that fox chick do it? Phel’s other hand draws a heart onto my bare arm. That’s another of our little notes. He does that and it means he loves me. Which probably means he finds my purring cute. Hell I know he does. He sends me videos of purring cats with the message ‘it’s you’, all the damn time.

I tuck my legs up, curling up tighter into his body as I feel myself starting to slip off to sleep. The sweet scent of flowers is always around Phel, and I find it one of the most comforting smells in the world. Honestly, this place might be shit, but at least I get to spend it with him.

I definitely end up falling asleep because the next time I open my eyes, I can clearly see Phel’s face before mine, his eyes shut tight as he sleeps, his mouth slightly ajar. The room around me is still silent so I’m guessing it can’t be too late in the morning. Leaning forward, I rest my nose onto his, smirking when he doesn’t even so much as twitch. I can still feel his fingers resting in my hair.

Slowly I move one of my arms from around him, bring my hand over to his face and trace around the purple markings he has on his face. Lunie has a white full moon on her face and Phel has a purple crescent moon around his right eye and then another marking just under his bottom lip. Sometimes he hates that he has them, kinda like me and my ears I guess. But I think they’re pretty.

For just a second he stirs in his sleep, my finger pauses just over his cheek before he relaxes again. Sometimes I can’t believe that such a pretty guy like him loves me like he does. I know my ma warns me sometimes not to do anything dumb. She gets on really well with Phel and I think she hopes that one day I might start to act a little more like him. I mean Phel’s smart and presentable. He’s polite, and people love that shit. I’m a little rougher. And that was fine at our old school. But what if he has an easier time fitting in here? I mean it is boarding school. Ain’t they supposed to be fancy and shit? I think that’s honestly one of my main worries starting here, that Phel will have an easier time fitting in than me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second new chapter :) 
> 
> Also the next chapter is going to be when these guys finally meet for real :)

Zoe

The sun was just starting to rise. It’s light sneaking underneath my curtains. Which means it’s totally morning. Silently I drop into a portal, my hands over my lips as I try not to giggle. Softly I creep over towards the mound in the bed, freezing when the covers move.

“I know you’re there,” he mumbles, pulling the covers over his black hair.

“Spoil sport,” I huff, before just throwing myself onto the bed and hearing him groan. Smiling, I start to snuggle down under the covers with him. He protests for about five seconds before giving up and moving his arm, allowing me to lay next to him.

“Why are you here?” He murmurs, still half asleep.

“I wanted a cuddle. Cuddle me,” I grin. There’s a sigh, his breath tickling my face before his arm comes over me, pulling me closer to him.

“Happy?”

“I am now,” I giggle. Truth be told, there is no reason for me to be here. I literally just wanted a cuddle. Which he’ll probably be annoyed by once he’s more awake, but for now I get what I wanted.

It’s still early morning, but there’s just enough light to see the way his eye lids keep closing, though he’s trying to keep them open. A slight smile comes to his lips as I poke his cheek.

“I’m tired Zoe,” he yawns, momentarily holding me tighter before his body relaxes again.

“I figured as much. Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet as a mouse. Maybe even quieter,” I promise. He sniggers at me, his eyes lazily opening to look at me.

“I’ll believe that when I see it. Don’t you have like new students to go and find and bug? They’ve been here nearly a day and you haven’t accosted any of them yet.”

“Well I haven’t seen any yet. Oh except those two I saw yesterday when I had your phone. But I was having far too much fun sending people messages from you.” Now his eyes do open, both of them faintly glowing blue.

“Yeah, thanks for that. I loved having to explain to Syndra that, while I do think she’s a bitch, I didn’t actually send her the text calling her out as one,” he sniggers.

“Yeah but without me sending that, you would have never had the chance to explain to her that you thought she was a bitch. And I know you _really_ don’t like her,” I grin at him.

“Yeah, going to be fun dealing with her at cheer practice once she’s back from the school break,” he yawns. Currently it’s a school holiday and as is usual, students that have homes have mostly gone to them. Kayn has stuck around rather than go to his master’s training place because he didn’t want me to be lonely. Which is sappy but also about as cute as I’m going to get from him. Ekko is knocking around as is Varus. Talon and Neeko both actually have places to go so they’ve vanished off for the week. But with new students starting, a few others have stuck around. More than usual. But it does mean that no one can immediately grab me for sending silly messages from Kayn’s phone. Though I know Ahri is around this week. She might say something if Syndra messages her. And I have no doubt Syndra will when she’s back, but Kayn would love an excuse to get into a fight with her.

“You still up for helping me practice this week” I check, his eyes starting to close again. His lips twist into a smirk and his eyes open again.

“Looking for support from Runeterra High’s best cheerleader?” he brags. You know, for someone that became a cheerleader by accident and hates any and all things glittery, he sure does love showing off. Not that he’s done a full routine since his transformation. He shows up to practice occasionally where he puts everyone to shame by memorising steps like it’s nothing and then he’ll vanish for a few. I do explain that he’s going through a lot right now. But I love moments like this when he’s actually behaving like himself.

“If I was looking for Runeterra High’s _best_ cheerleader, I wouldn’t come to you,” I huff, folding my arms over the covers. I feel his body shake from his suppressed laugh. He leans closer to me, his lips gently kissing my forehead and causing my cheeks to tint pink.

“Who would you go to then?” He whispers, his breath tickling at my face as he brings his lips further down, kissing at the tip of my nose. A squeal like a deflating balloon escapes my lips.

“Maybe you,” I relent.

“Good. I am the best,” he tells me, his voice still low. There’s a pause before his lips find mine and he starts to gently tug on them before he starts to properly kiss me. This lasts all of about five seconds before he yawns and I burst out laughing.

“You’re so romantic,” I tease. Even in this light I can see his pale cheeks flushing. Since his transformation it’s so much easier to see when he’s embarrassed, even with his markings.

“I’m tired is what I am. I was up very late into the night answering phone calls wanting to know why I’d sent a message to people. Syndra called me like a dozen times. Possibly because I called her a bitch the first time. But yeah, she just kept ringing. I was a step away from tossing my phone out of the window. Or y’know, bringing it round to the girls dorm and dumping it in your room.”

“You should have come round, then we could have had longer cuddles.”

“Zoe, there’s barely space in your bed for you with all the stuffed animals you have. The last time I slept in your bed, I was nearly suffocated by a unicorn.”

“And you never even apologised to Marshmallow for then launching her across the room,” I remind him. He nods and yawns again.

“Uh huh, what time is it?”

“Zoe time!” He pauses now and his bright blue eyes just look at me. Sighing he shakes his head before pulling me tighter to him.

“Yeah fine. Why not? Just let me sleep ok?”

“It’s not Zoe time if you’re asleep,” I point out.

“I promise to help you with cheerleading, or winding Ekko up, or chasing after new people if you will let me sleep for a bit longer. But you also need to stay here,” he tells me, his voice slowly starting to trail off.

“Oh really? Why?” I smirk, watching his expression match mine.

“Because.”

“Because what?”

“Because I like you being here. Happy? Can I sleep now?” His eyes shut and he pulls the duvet tighter around us both.

“Yeah, ok,” I say gently, slipping my own arms around his chest and feeling him drop off beside me.

There’s not a moment with him I don’t cherish. I came so close to never having moments like this with him. I know how much he’s still hurting over everything that happens. I know that if he can get some quiet sleep he needs it, because all too often his dreams are filled with nightmares. Nightmares of being trapped in a labyrinth of his own bad memories. It scares him so much. His frequent flashbacks show just how much that demon messed with his head.

But he’s here. And as long as he’s here, things can get better. He can work on getting there. And I’ll be right there with him, no matter what.

“Shieda Kayn, you are sleep talking again,” I smile, listening to him mumble to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took a little longer to come out than my usual updating of chapters. I've been distracted with playing Lillia and Yone in League lol XD

Aphelios

“You think anyone else is awake?” Sett asks, his ear pressed up against my door as I kneel by my drawers and hunt through my clothes. His eyes come over to me and I just shrug. I mean given its past ten in the morning I’m going to guess a lot of people are awake by now. But Sett is really not a morning person. I am. I have no issues waking up, but this morning I was unable to actually move anywhere given I was being held in Sett’s arms and his grip is like iron at times.

Sett’s current self-made dilemma was that he’d come round to my room in nothing more than his underwear. Which I’m sure seemed like a great idea in the dead of night, but now he’s worried about running into someone. Turning around I hold a t-shirt up to him. It’s probably the baggiest I have. He takes one look at it and bursts out laughing.

“Phel, all of this ain’t fitting into that,” he sniggers, flexing his arms. I roll my eyes at him and just shrug again, a smirk on my face as his ears fall. “I’m going to have to go out, aren’t I?” I nod at him, chuckling as his shoulders drop.

Walking over I stand beside him and take the pen off my white board. He peers over me as I write, which is nothing new. Sett is taller and far broader than me.

_I’ll come round with you. You get dressed and then we can see if Senna and Alune want to go exploring._

I know my sister spent most of yesterday with Senna, the two of them helping each other to get set up. They did a better job than we did. My room is all set up and ready. Sett’s is not. But I also know he won’t want to stay inside. He’ll want to have a wander around.

“You gonna watch me get changed?” He whispers in my ear turning my face beetroot as his arms hang over my shoulders.

_I was going to make your bed while you got ready._

“But I liked sleeping in your bed. Maybe we should just leave my bed and I’ll just come round here every night,” he says before I feel his teeth lightly nibbling the top of my ear. My whole body tingles at his touch and a smile spreads over my face. Wiping my sleeve over my board I write him another message.

_These beds are very small. I think_ you’ll _be better in yours._

“Phel, you’re also pretty small. There’s nothing to you,” he teases, one of his fingers poking at my ribs. “But I guess exploring sounds ok. I can share you with Lunie and Senna. Wonder if her boy’s around today or not?” He doesn’t move though. He continues to drape himself over me until I reach to open my door. That sparks him into life.

“Woah, ok, but you gotta check out there first. Cos it won’t look great if I get detention in my underwear for punching Sylas first thing,” he laughs. Sett does not get along with Sylas. In fact that’s a tragic understatement. The two of them loathe each other. Thankfully we haven’t actually seen Sylas yet. Which I guess is a good thing for Sett’s record.

Rolling my eyes, I open the door and peer out, feeling his head appear above mine.

“Looks quiet,” he whispers, still leaning on me. I point down to where his room was and feel him slowly edge round me. I was wondering where he had put his room key, but it looks like he never locked his door given he just dashes straight into it. He really needs to take more care with things. Shaking my head, I wander down after him, but not before locking my door.

I walk in to Sett throwing things out of his case as he tries to find anything. He can’t find the clothes he wants, his toiletries or anything. Probably because everything he has is still in bags. Shaking my head, I wander over to one of the carryall bags he has. Unzipping it I look at several different sets of weights. Is there anything else in here? Did he literally just pack weights?

“Is my underwear in there?” He asks, looking over at me. I give him my driest look and pull out a small rubber dumbbell. Sett doesn’t even look at it like it’s odd.

“That’s not my underwear Phel. Maybe they’re in my second bag?” He wanders over and from his triumphant grunt, I’m assuming he’s found what he’s looking for.

“Right, I’m taking a shower. Wanna watch?” He smirks at me. I just point to his bed. I should get that made for him.

“Hey if you want sex first, I’m down for that,” he sniggers and I feel my face heat up as I grab the pack of spare bedding his mum packed him and hold it up.

“Boring. But hey, if you make it, I don’t have to,” he chuckles to himself before heading off into the bathroom. I watch him go before letting a smile onto my face. He’s such an ass at times, but I really wouldn’t have him any other way.

Making his bed doesn’t take me too long while I can hear him singing in his shower. I also start to unpack other things for him. Like his clothes. He’ll be able to find these easier if they’re put away. I have no idea where he wants the weights, so I just leave that bag in the centre of his floor. I also very quickly realise Sett’s idea of packing for school seems to include a pen. Where are his notebooks? I find his laptop which is at least a start, but he must have packed some notebooks to write in?

He hasn’t.

By the time he’s finished his rendition to several songs in the shower, I’ve pretty much unpacked his bags and there isn’t a notebook anywhere. In fact, there’s only one pen. And that has had the end chewed off.

The door to the shower gets thrown open as he wanders out in a cloud of steam. A comb is going through his unruly red hair as his eyes glance around his room.

“Hey, you sorted it,” he grins at me. He knew full well I would. I gesture around his room and then hold his pen up. He looks confused, his ears pricking up. “It’s a pen.” No shit Sett. I can see that. Again I gesture but he just shrugs at me.

“No idea what’s up there Phel. Write it for me.” On what? You haven’t got anything for me to write on you moron. Sighing I drop the pen and stamp round to my room, removing my whiteboard from my door and heading back into his, already writing my message over it.

_Sett, where is your school stuff? Where are your notebooks for lessons?_

“School stuff? Here,” he picks the half-eaten pen up off the floor and holds it up. I stare at him, but the grin on his face doesn’t falter. Getting my pen I underline part of my earlier message.

_Sett, where is your school stuff? Where are your notebooks for lessons?_

“Notebooks? I’ve not got any. Why?” He asks, cocking his head at me.

_School work Sett. You do actually need to do school work. Like taking notes in class._

“Notes? I figured I’d just copy yours,” he smirks.

_COPY ONTO WHAT!?!?_

“I love it when you get angry. Your writing gets so aggressive,” he chuckles. God give me strength.

_Sett, I’m a year older than you. We’ll be in different lessons._

“Yeah but I bet the work will be similar,” he continues, and I just hit my face with my board. Nope, forget exploring the school. I’m buying him some notebooks. He is not walking into lessons next week having no equipment at all. Nope. Not happening.

_We’re going shopping. Brush your ears. They’re fuzzy_

I watch him wander back to the bathroom, his hand going to them as he looks into the mirror.

“Shopping for what?” He asks, using his comb to tame the fur on his ears somewhat.

_Notebooks._

“Sounds dull.”

I shake my head and wander back to my room, dropping my whiteboard off and getting my bag and wallet. By the time I return to Sett, his ears have been combed and he looks ready to leave. I usher him from the room before realising he hasn’t locked it. Sighing I go back into his room, get his key from where it’s sat next to his bed and then exit, locking his door and passing him his key.

“I’ll lose this. You look after it for me,” he smiles, passing it to me. I tuck it away in my pocket as we head to the stairs. Now where nearby can we buy stationary from? I’m not that familiar with the local area here.

“You looking for a map?” Sett asks, peering at my phone as we walk down the stairs. I give a nod as we come out onto the floor below us. We turn to head into the next stairwell when we both stop at hearing another door open and two students step out of a room.

“This is the boys dorms, right?” Sett whispers, his eyes going to the girl as I just nod. I glance up at him and watch the smirk that spreads over his lips. There’s a moment where the other students talk to each other before the guy looks up, his eyes meeting our and I watch his cheeks go pink. Beside him there’s a gasp.

“New people!” The girl squeals. “Oh my gosh. Hi, you’re new!” It’s the girl I saw yesterday and I’m guessing the guy that jumped through a wall.

“Hey, thought this was the boys dorms?” Sett grins at her, but his obvious implication seems to sail right past her as she dashes over to us. I glance behind her, watching the way her hair floats around her, the colours seeming to shift hues.

“Duh, of course it’s the boys dorm. That’s my boyfriend. That’s why I’m here,” she gestures over to the guy. “But you guys are new. I haven’t met any of the new people yet. Hi, I’m Zoe. Who are you guys?” She hops around as her boyfriend rubs at his eyes with his fingers. His really dark fingers. Is he wearing gloves? Why are his hands a different colour to his face?

“It’s not like whatever you think. I swear. She comes over every morning. And evening. And whenever she can. But not like that. Please just ignore her,” the guy says sounding somewhat embarrassed. But the girl, what did she say her name was? Zoe? She’s totally oblivious.

“So what are your names? What years are you in? Where are your rooms? Are you guys upstairs? Oh my god, you’re on the same floor as Ekko. I can see you when I come up to see him.” She leaps up and hovers in front of us, her hands clasped together. Is she floating?

“I’m Sett,” Sett says proudly as she turns her attention to him.

“Sett? What a cool name. And you have such cute ears. Are you a vastaya?”

“Half.”

“Half? We don’t have any halves here so now you’re even cooler,” she gushes and I notice a slight pink tint to Sett’s cheeks.

“Er, thanks. I think.”

“And who are you? What’s your name? I like your face tattoos. Is that a moon? That’s really cool too,” her eyes are almost sparkling as I smile and glance to Sett.

“This is Aphelios,” Sett answers for me and I nod. I tap my throat and gesture between Sett and Zoe. “Ah right. He can’t talk. He’s mute.” Sett explains.

“Mute? You should meet Sona. She’s mute too,” Zoe tells me. Really? They have another mute student here? I wonder if she knows sign language. It’d be nice to talk to people besides my sister. That’s when I see movement from the corner of my eye and glance back over to the guy, his hands doing movements I recognise.

_“Do you know sign language? If you’re mute?”_ Wait? He knows sign language? Hurriedly I tuck my phone into the pocket of my jeans and sign back to him.

_“Yes I do. How do you?”_

“I was taught,” he says out loud, stepping closer to us both. “My name’s Kayn. Nice to meet you Sett, Aphelios.”

“Oh, is that how you talk to people? Do you know sign language too? That’s so cool. Sona can do that. And Taliyah. And yeah, he can too,” Zoe gestures behind her. Wait, other students here know sign language? That’s such a relief to hear.

“So where are you guys going? You exploring? Want a guide? I know where everything is. Literally everything. I can give you a tour,” Zoe squeals in front of us. I look behind her to Kayn and I sign to him, see if he can understand what I’m saying. I’ve been so worried about how to communicate with people besides my sister.

“They’re going shopping Zoe. Stationary,” Kayn says, but Zoe doesn’t seem discouraged at all.

“Shopping? I love shopping. Can we come? We can show you where the shops are.” Before I can sign or move, Sett is already nodding his head.

“Hell yeah. We ain’t got a clue where to go and Phel here is being boring and saying I need pens n’ shit for school,” he grins at the girl.

“I know the best place for pens. Let me get my bag,” she squeals before a swirling portal of colours appears behind her and she dives into it before it vanishes leaving just me and Sett with the other guy.

“Warning, her idea of good pens will be pink, they will have glitter on, and they may even smell of fruits. If you want, I can find something else for her to fixate on if you guys want to head off without us,” Kayn says, looking between us both, his hands in his jacket pockets. There’s something very odd about him. He has strange markings on his face and his eyes are almost glowing blue.

“What? Nah, my ma wants me to make friends. And we ain’t got a clue where to go. Besides, you speak hands and I don’t,” Sett grins at him. Kayn glances at me and I just nod, signing for him.

_“Sett doesn’t speak sign language. He gets frustrated sometimes he can’t understand me. Sorry about this.”_

“Don’t be sorry. I should apologise to you two, because you’re about to have an up close and personal introduction to Zoe and I am genuinely sorry for that,” he smirks.


	8. Chapter 8

Kayn

I warned them both about Zoe. I gave them adequate warning that Zoe could be weird. And yet here I am, huddled on the floor in a corner of a shop having a freak out. I warned them about my girlfriend, but apparently I’m the weirder one in our relationship. She’s certainly not sat on the floor struggling to breathe. Just me.

Zoe has decided to bring Sett to her favourite stationery shop which means everything in here is bright, colourful, glittery and covered in unicorns or some other dumb cutesy thing. Problem for me is that this is right in the middle of the shopping centre and with it being the school holidays, this place is packed. Well the shop itself isn’t, thankfully we’re the only people in here. But the centre is just so busy.

I lean my head onto a shelf beside me as I try my best to calm myself down. My entire body has started shaking. There’s just too much noise. I can’t concentrate when there’s so much noise. There’s a tap on my knee and I look up at the other new guy. Aphelios. He’s crouched before me, a puzzled look on his face.

_“You alright? You’re shaking.”_

“I have some anxiety issues,” I whisper. Nearby I hear Zoe squeal over something and I try and focus on that. Come on Kayn, think about how much you’re going to hate having to hear about every new pen she’s going to buy. Think about how you know she’ll buy new stickers and those stickers will appear in various places around your room.

_“I guess you don’t like crowds?”_ He signs to me and I just nod. To be honest he’s a pretty calm guy so at least I can focus on that and try and ignore the overload of information I currently have around me.

“I had an accident a few weeks ago.” I give literally the most abridged version I can. The last thing I want to tell this guy is I turned into a seven-foot demon with a scythe and tried to murder everyone I know.

For a moment in my head I swear I hear _his_ laugh and in response I clamp my hands over my ears as though that will help at all. All it does is make me look weirder than I already am.

“Hey Aphelios. That’s such a fun name. More fun than Zoe. Don’t worry about Kayn. He has a few moments like this every now and again,” Zoe seems to screech in my ear as she skips over to me and sits herself beside me.

“Are you alright yet Kayn?” Janna asks, leaning on the edge of her counter. I look over at her as she smiles, her long blonde hair up in its signature ponytail. She works here, which is currently a good thing so I can have my freak out and know at least the shop assistant isn’t going to get on at me.

“He’ll be fine,” Zoe tells her. “He has me after all. Ooooo Janna, look, new people. These are the new students. Well two of them. Isn’t it exciting?” I feel her small hand on my back, rubbing up and down. I feel her magic pass into me as she tries to keep me calm.

“I know Zoe. You told me when you came in,” Janna smiles. She’s a pretty chill. Not to mention I hear she also helped out when I had my whole darkin episode. No, don’t think about that. Think about literally anything else Kayn. Anything else. I close my eyes, trying to regulate my breathing.

“He ok?” I hear Sett ask.

“He’ll be fine. He has me and I’m a very good girlfriend. So what pens are you buying? Are you buying those stamp pens? You’d like the stamp pens Kayn. Well actually you’d hate them, but I love them and I’m buying some so you’ll have to love them because I’m going to stamp all your things with them. They have stars and butterfly ones. Stars and butterflies are kinda my thing,” she says, and I assume that last line is for the two new guys. I’m fully aware stars are her thing.

“You mean a stamp pen that has a purple moon on? Hell yeah I’m buying that,” I hear Sett laugh. Seriously? She’s convinced him to buy some dumb gimmick pen? The guy is the size of a barn. Why is he buying cutesy pens?

“That’s such a pretty one. What other pens are you buying? Oh, know what you should buy? You should buy that notebook I showed you,” Zoe continues to gush over things as I open my eyes and try and calm my breathing down. It’s gone Kayn. It’s over with.

“You guys buying supplies for school?” Janna asks. I guess given we’re the only people in the store and also her classmates, she can chat to us.

“Yeah. Phel here thinks my pen isn’t good enough for class,” Sett smirks, leaning on the counter and causing Janna to blush. That guy is built like a truck. How is he our age? Wonder who’d win between him and Darius?

_“You sure you’re ok?”_ Aphelios asks me and I slowly nod my head. I will be. Eventually at least. Because I can’t keep having these attacks.

“It’s just too much info to process and my mind shuts down,” I say quietly.

“Good job my mind doesn’t do that. I like lots of things,” Zoe brags. “Oh, Aphelios, if you want any notebooks they have this whole lunar section and there’s stars and moons and all that cool stuff. Like I said, I like stars so I’m buying some stuff from there.”

“You have more than enough notebooks,” I remind Zoe, but she just grins at me.

“You can never have too many pretty things Kayn. It’s why I can keep you around.” Her smile literally fills her face, her hand still on my back. It’s fine though, I can breathe again. I don’t feel like the walls of the shop are crushing me anymore.

“Yeah Phel. You should get some moon shit. You should buy one for you and one for Lunie,” Sett calls over and I watch Aphelios’ expression drop.

“Who’s Lunie?” Zoe asks, jumping up beside me. Her hand comes down and helps me up. My legs wobble but at least I can stand. Janna smiles over at me, giving me a thumbs up.

“Lunie is Phel’s sister. They’re twins. She’s started your school too,” Sett explains. I look to Aphelios as he signs to me.

_“Her name is Alune. Sett calls her Lunie. And can you remind him it’s his school now as well.”_ I smirk at him and nod.

“Er, Sett, Aphelios says that it’s your school too now,” I add in. The red headed guy looks over at me, his ears twitching.

“Temp school Phel. Only a temp school.”

“Aren’t you here for like a year?” Zoe asks, looking up at him.

“I mean, yeah, but it’s still a temp school. Once our school is all fixed up, we’ll be headin’ back over there,” Sett grins.

“That’s a shame,” Janna says before going bright red and turning away.

“You likin’ the new view?” Sett smirks, flexing his arms. This guy is literally full of himself. I thought _I_ could be arrogant. There’s a tap on my shoulder and I look to Aphelios, his expression not looking impressed.

_“Can you tell him if he continues that, I’m not buying him anything. Sorry to keep asking you. It’s just nice to be able to talk to someone besides my family.”_ God I can imagine. I give a nod and look back to where Sett is flirting with an increasingly flustered Janna.

“Aphelios says that if you continue, he’s not buying you anything,” I say and watch Sett’s ears droop. What is he? A dog?

“Don’t be like that Phel. Besides, you wanted to buy me stuff remember?” He flashes a toothy grin which causes Aphelios to just roll his eyes.

“Buy the moon pen. He can’t say no to the moon pen,” Zoe loudly whispers into Sett’s ear as she floats next to him. I also notice she’s now holding a basket filled with stuff. When did she fill that up? She was standing right next to me.

“She has a point,” Sett thumbs towards my girlfriend. “The moon is purple. Just like yours. Can’t deny me that now can you?” I watch as Aphelios’ shoulders drop, his head shaking. “He’s giving in. That’s his ‘just do what you like Sett’, face.”

“Kayn has a face _just_ like that too. That’s his, ‘do what you like Zoe, just please leave me alone’ shoulder drop and head shake. You know, they do look very similar. Except Aphelios looks nice. Kayn can be so moody sometimes. Like super moody,” Zoe says.

“I mean, Kayn does put up with _a lot_ ,” Janna adds in, smiling over at Zoe.

“I don’t like what you’re insinuating there,” Zoe narrows her eyes at the blonde girl, staring at her.

“She’s not wrong Zoe. Please just buy your pens so we can get out of here. Ekko will be wondering where we are,” I gesture over towards the door, but the thought of heading back out there doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

“Oh my god, great idea Kayn. You guys need to meet Ekko. Come on guys. We need to buy our stuff. Like Neeko isn’t around this week. You’ll like Neeko. Everyone likes Neeko. But Ekko is. And Varus. So you should meet them,” She beams, dropping to the floor and carrying her basket over to another shelf, throwing things into it. Sett trails after her which is somewhat hilarious to watch.

A tap on my shoulder and I turn to look at Aphelios, a confused look on his face.

_“So you and her are an item?”_

“Sadly, yes.” He moves to sign something else but seems to pause, clearly thinking better. But I can take a guess at what he’s about to ask. “I’m aware we’re very different. Believe me I’m aware.” I look back at where she’s getting hyper over some heart shaped notebook she’s found. She hops around, her hair floating around her body as it seems to literally sparkle. We are so different, but damn does she make me happy.

“Zoe, I have hardly any cash on me so anything you’re putting in that basket, you’re buying,” I warn her. I get a pout in return but nothing goes back on the shelves. She makes me happy but I’m not paying for her obsession with everything.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this one guys and for it being a short chapter. Last week i started back at work properly for the first time since quarantine started here in March and it wasn't a great start. It left me anxious and very stressed which are obviously not great for productivity. But i had this chapter almost finished :) Just a short one because I feel Sett and Zoe have some real potential for getting up to stuff together and annoying their boyfriends lol XD
> 
> I promise the next one will be longer and will hopefully be up sooner :)

Sett

“So what was that chick’s name in the shop?” I ask Zoe as she floats through the air. That is so freaking cool. I’ve never met anyone that can fly, but she just does it so easily. Not to mention every so often she vanishes into these portals of light and reappears somewhere else.

“That’s Janna. She’s a cheerleader. Like me,” she squeals, pointing at herself.

“You’re a cheerleader?” I ask, not sure I believe her. I mean this girl is like four foot nothing. There’s no way she could form a pyramid or anything for anyone. Not to mention she doesn’t seem to have much co-ordination.

“Er yeah. I practiced like super hard for it. Super hard. And like the girls that run the cheerleading squad are bitches. The absolute worst at times. They tried to mess it all up for me, but they didn’t and I got on,” she brags to me. “He’s on the squad too.” She points behind us to where Phel is talking with Kayn. I glance over my shoulder, watching Phel sign something and Kayn respond. Wish I could do that.

“He’s a cheerleader?” I look back to this girl with the weird colour changing hair and two different eye colours. She nods her head at me.

“Oh yeah. There’s me, Kayn and Neeko from our group. Then there’s Xayah and Rakan who are like sort of in our group sometimes. Then there’s Lux, Ezreal, Lulu, Poppy, Janna, Soraka, Jinx. They’re all lovely. I mean Poppy kinda has a grudge against me, but I once dropped her into a portal. It was an accident, but she’s never really got over it. But then there’s Ahri, Syndra and Sarah and they are just the worst. I don’t like them. They make life hard for me. Problem is for them, Kayn is better at their routines than they are. I mean he’s better at the routines than anyone. He’s _so_ good at that sort of stuff,” she tells me, rambling on through names I don’t know. I glance back over my shoulder to look at this guy. He’s in black skinny jeans, a black jacket and blue t-shirt. His hair is super long with a long blue streak at the front. Not to mention these weird face markings he has. He’s a cheerleader? Seriously.

“Yo, Zoe, am I seeing things, or are his hands a different colour to the rest of his body?” I ask, looking back at the two of them.

“Sshhhh. Don’t mention that,” she whispers, her voice dropping suddenly as she glances back, but Kayn is way too focused on something Phel is signing.

“How come?”

“He had an accident recently. You’ll hear about it from someone I have no doubt. But he has like PTSD or something from it. If you mention it, he really freaks out. Like in the shop today. He never used to be like that. But anytime he feels he’s trapped, he freaks out. And crowds make him feel like that. But mentioning it really messes with him. Please don’t mention it to him,” she holds her hands before her, begging me. I give her a nod.

“Yeah, sure. No worries.” An accident? Wonder what sort of accident changes the colour of your hands? But this girl is being nice to me. If I can make friends with her then I can tell my ma I’ve made friends and that’ll just brighten up her whole week. So if she don’t want me to mention his hands, I won’t. I mean I’ll find out I have no doubt. Qiyana is starting here and that girl finds everything out.

“Yeah, it messed him up badly,” she admits, her tone dropping as she again looks over her shoulder to her boyfriend. Damn, this must have been some accident.

“He seems fine now,” I shrug, trying to lighten her mood again. She gives a nod before switching to flying on her back.

“Don’t drop my goodies,” she calls back, waving. I watch as her boyfriend sticks his finger up at her. A bag clasped in his other hand filled with everything Zoe bought. “He loves me really. He bought me glitter for our school dance. So I like know he loves me.”

“Glitter?”

“I love glitter. It’s like the best thing ever,” she gushes. Beside her a portal opens and I watch her reach in and pull out a pot of pink glitter. “See! It’s all sparkly. Sparkles are the best!” Behind us the footsteps stop, and I turn back to see Kayn has stopped, his eyes on Zoe.

“Don’t you dare bring that stuff anywhere near me,” he warns. “I swear Zoe, I’ll drop your pens right here if you do!”

“Spoil sport,” she huffs, another portal opening. She vanishes into it for a moment before returning. “There, it’s all gone.” I’m, not saying there’s a look of trust between them but Kayn continues to walk, his eyes now fixed firmly on his girlfriend.

“See, I told you he can be so moody at times,” she says to me before sticking her tongue out.

“Yeah? You should see Phel sometimes. He gets proper angry at me,” I laugh. A second or two passes before I feel my phone buzz. Smirking I pull it from my pocket, not at all surprised to see who it’s from.

_“Only when you’re being obnoxious.”_ I turn to wink at him. He loves me being obnoxious really.

“Phel, I ain’t ever obnoxious. I just like pointin’ out when I’m the best. And I’m always the best,” I smirk. I don’t miss him rolling his eyes, his fingers typing me another message. Almost on cue my phone buzzes.

_“You’re an idiot that packed a half-eaten pen for school. Also, Alune has messaged. Her and Senna are checking out the school and want to know if we want to join?”_

“Phel, you know I’m always up for hanging with Lunie. Hey Zoe, wanna meet some more new people?” I turn to the girl, her eyes already sparkling as she stares at me.

“Heck yeah! Kayn, we get to meet everyone first!” She twirls in the air before dropping down onto the pavement.

“How many people are we talking about here?” Kayn asks, looking somewhat apprehensive. Wow, something messed this guy up bad.

“Only two others. Phel’s sister and Senna. They’re both cool,” I add in. Kayn nods, his eyes going back to Zoe, but she’s still beaming.

“Kayn, if you feel like you’re about to freak out, I’ll portal drop you somewhere. But come on, isn’t this exciting? We need to grab Ekko and Varus though. That way you guys can meet them too.”

“I’m liking this plan,” I point at her. “So who’s Ekko and Varus?”

“Oh they’re our friends. They’re cool. Varus is like a new addition to the group. He started dating Talon who is like Kayn’s best friend after me, which means he now gets to hang with us more. It’s all very fun. Ekko is an old school member of our squad. He likes building stuff and normally making things explode. Never on purpose. More that he overestimates how good he is at building stuff,” Zoe explains, skipping ahead of me. I watch her seemingly create a purple skipping rope from literally nothing and she starts to use that, skipping forward. There is something very odd about these two.


	10. Chapter 10

Zoe

“So you’re Alune and you’re Senna? Hi, I’m Zoe,” I grin, bouncing around in front of them. “I like your hair. That’s a really cool style. And I like your tattoo. You match your brother.” Alune looks a lot like her brother. Very pale with a white full moon tattoo over her face. Her long white hair is done up in some plaits. While Senna has super bright green eyes, dark skin and some amazing dreadlocks in her hair. She even has some gold bands in them. They look so awesome. Both of them look at each other as I hop around in front of them.

“And my ma worried I wouldn’t make friends. See, got myself a friend already,” Sett gestures at me, stepping up beside me.

“Yeah, we’re friends now. We bought pens. Do you two need pens? They have some really pretty styles,” I smile.

“We are not going back,” Kayn mutters, walking behind me and sitting over on a bench on one of the school’s picnic tables. I glance over as Varus and Aphelios sit with him while me, Sett and Ekko say hi to the two girls. See I’m so nice. I made sure to pick up Ekko and Varus first. So now all these new people have new friends.

“Zoe? I’m sure Lucien has mentioned your name before,” Senna muses, looking at me. I know my eyes light up.

“You know Lucien? Oh my god? You’re his girlfriend right? You’re super pretty,” I tell her. “And Lucien talks about me? That’s so nice of him.”

“Probably warned her about you,” Ekko sniggers. “So have you two been exploring? You want a tour?” I glance over at him and smirk.

“Don’t think Taliyah would like that grin there Ekko,” I tease.

“We’re fine, thank you. We’ve been having a quick wander around,” Alune tells me, a smile on her face.

“That’s right, I remember now, Lucien said there was an odd girl at this school called Zoe that is some sort of goddess,” Senna clicks her fingers before looking me up and down. “And he better explain what he means by that unless he’s just calling any girl a goddess these days.”

“Sparkles? Yeah, she’s a goddess,” Ekko points at me.

“Say what?” I hear Sett ask and I look up at him to find him staring at me too.

“Oh that. Yeah, I mean technically I’m not a goddess. I am immortal though. I’m an Aspect though. The Aspect of Twilight,” I grin, my hands on my hips.

“You serious?” Sett asks again and I just proudly nod.

“Yup. I can like see stars and stuff. And look, I can make portals too,” I say, opening one below me and dropping into it before opening another above the others. “See, magic space portals. I know a giant space dragon too, but _some_ people don’t believe me about that.” I look over to Kayn who just flips me off. I stick my tongue out at him.

“So Lucien was being serious?” Senna asks me. The look on her face tells me she maybe doesn’t fully believe what I’m telling her. Understandable. I mean, she’s just met me. She hasn’t fought a demon with me like the others did.

“Lucien’s always pretty serious. He wouldn’t lie to you,” Alune says to her before looking back to me. “Phel and I are actually part of a religion that worship the Aspect of the Moon.”

“You mean Diana?” I ask, thinking about the woman I’ve met a few times. Very uptight. But also in some sort of lovers spat with Leona that they really need to talk and get over. It’s been centuries guys, come on.

“You know about her? So few people have even heard of our religion,” Alune tells me looking somewhat surprised.

“Heard of it? Of course I know of the Lunari. I used to be Lunari. I mean I guess technically I am still a Lunari. I mean I used to have white hair too, I think. Maybe. It was a super long time ago,” I ramble. “But yes, I know of Diana. Like I said, I am the Aspect of Twilight.” There’s a touch of bragging to my words. I mean, it is a cool thing to brag about.

“Yeah, Sparkles has like crazy power sometimes. She can do all sorts of magic and stuff. Like the other week we really needed her magic…” Ekko starts but I just tackle him into a portal and drop us out onto the grass around the other side of the building we were near. Ekko goes pale and looks at me.

“What was that for? Man I don’t feel well. You gotta warn me with the portals Zoe. They don’t half mess with my stomach.”

“You cannot tell those people about Rhaast,” I tell him, fretting slightly. He looks at me before sighing.

“They’ll find out y’know. People outside of school _know_ something happened. I mean hell half of us ended up in hospital from it. Someone will tell them.”

“Yes, but not us. Not with Kayn there. He’s already had one freak out today when we took Sett and Aphelios shopping. Please Ekko. He’ll get so depressed if he has another. Especially in front of more new people,” I beg, my hands clasped together. He sighs and nods his head.

“Sure thing. I didn’t mean it to mess with him. It was just a big deal y’know? I mean heck, the school’s still pretty battered from it all. Him too I guess. He’s not been the same since has he?” He glances to the building we’re now in the shadow of and I just shake my head. No. He hasn’t.

“You didn’t see what I saw. What Rhaast was showing him, it was awful. It broke him so badly. There’s some really not nice things in his past and Rhaast just had it all on repeat for him. He made him feel worthless. And even now I think that’s still lingering with him. I think he keeps feeling like he’s not worth anything,” I explain, scuffing my light up trainers through the grass.

“It’s kinda hard to believe. Of all our group, Kayn was always so confident about stuff. It’s weird seeing him second guessing himself so often now,” Ekko says, his shoulders slumping somewhat.

“He thinks he didn’t deserve to win. That’s what’s really eating him up. He doesn’t mention it often to me. But sometimes he does. He feels like Rhaast should have won. That’s why he’s second guessing himself so much.” I admit, my eyes dropping down to the grass below me. “Ekko, I want to help him so damn badly, but I don’t know what to do for him.”

“Sparkles, he has us. He has you. I think that’s a pretty big way of helping him. Plus he’s as stubborn as a mule. He’ll get there. I can’t imagine turning into a demon would exactly be a pleasant experience for anyone. I’m sure he’ll be back to his charming self soon enough,” Ekko smirks at me. “Also what that new girl said, about the aspect of the moon, you know her then?”

“Diana? Yeah I’ve met her. I’ve met all the other Aspects. I’m immortal Ekko. And I’m not telling her this, but Diana can be so damn stubborn. Like majorly. Think Kayn but times him by like a thousand. And Leona, she’s even worse,” I shake my head. I do wish there as more I could do for Kayn though. I’m the Aspect of Twilight. I’m immortal. So why can’t I help my boyfriend conquer his own self-doubt?

“Sparkles? Cheer up ok? Lets head back round to the others – no portals though – and just freak out these new students as we would have probably done way before the whole Rhaast thing. Then Kayn can sit there and scowl at us and it’ll be like he’s just the same Kayn he’s always been,” Ekko smiles at me, his hand resting on my shoulder.

“Ok,” I nod, forcing a smile to my face.

As we come back into sight of the others, it looks like Varus is busy explaining something to the two girls with Sett almost bouncing around trying to add his own things into the conversation. It’s as we get closer that a pair of blue eyes turn to look at me, an inquiring look on his face.

“We’re back,” I proclaim, my arms outstretched. The two new girls look confused, but Sett just grins at me.

“Y’see? I told you those portals are cool as heck,” he says. I mean, I know they are. They’re the best.

“Yeah? Try going through one. It’ll turn your stomach inside out,” Ekko shrugs, wandering back over. Kayn continues to stare at me and I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. Pulling it out I am in no way surprised to see his name.

_Going to explain?_

I just look over at him and blow a kiss. No, I’m not explaining you moron. I’m trying to make sure your mind doesn’t have another meltdown.

“Welcome back guys. I was just telling everyone about the school. Though the questions mostly lingered around your portals and how they work. I felt ‘space magic’ summed them up the best,” Varus smiles. He’s very chill. Which is good in our group because I’m fairly certain the rest of us have no chill what-so-ever.

“Space magic is a very good way of describing them,” I nod. “So are you guys all ready to start here then? Did you guys have a uniform at your last school? Because we have a uniform here. Do you guys have your uniform?” I ask, skipping over to the picnic table and leaping up onto the bench beside my boyfriend.

“Yeah, we had uniform. But my ma took me shopping for my new one last week,” Sett tells me.

“Got mine too. Gonna take photos of me and Lucien matching,” Senna smiles before winking at Alune.

“I’m sure he’ll love that.”

“Boyfriends can be very weird about selfies,” I nod. Beside me Kayn turns away from me, his back now facing me. I just lean forward, my hands resting on his shoulders.

“I somehow don’t think Senna will appear in Lucien’s room at 3am and take a photo of him,” Kayn says.

“Only because she can’t make portals. Can you make portals Senna?”

“Er no. I can sometimes see ghosts and stuff but it’s not quite the same,” she explains as my eyes widen and I hear my boyfriend groan.

“Please don’t tell her that,” he moans.

“Really?” I squeal, leaning forward on him. “Oh my god, we should go ghost hunting! I’m sure there’s like ghosts in the school. Oh my god, we should totally do that. Right, it’s settled, we’re doing that at some point. I like new people starting school. There’s so much we can do.”

“It’s only sometimes,” Senna tries to explain.

“Too late,” Kayn dryly tells her.

We spend the rest of the afternoon talking with the new people and showing them around the school. I of course take photos to send to Neeko. She’ll need to know who everyone is when she’s back in school. However I’ve only been back in my dorm for about ten minutes before I get a phonecall from my darling boyfriend.

“Missing me already?” I grin, sticking the phone on speaker as I look through my collection of hairbows. What should I wear tomorrow? Do I go glitter or patterns? One with charms hanging from it or one with something stuck in the centre?

“Zoe, remember when we were walking back from the shop earlier and I was carrying your bag of crap?” He asks. I nod my head, looking over to my bag of new pens. I can’t wait to use them in lessons.

“Of course. I bought some good ones,” I say.

“Uh huh. Remember you opened a portal and pulled out some pink glitter?”

“I do. You got cranky,” I say before suddenly looking up. “Oh.”

“Oh. Tell me Zoe, when I told you to get rid of it, what did you do with it?”

“Oh,” I say again. I’d totally forgotten all about that.

“What part of ‘don’t bring it near me’ meant to you, ‘spread it all over my bed!’” It’s so funny when he gets exasperated with me. His voice starts to get just slightly higher.

“I’d forgotten about that,” I admit, biting my lips to hide my giggle.

“Get your sparkly butt over here and help me clean this!”

“Geez, if you wanted me over again for the night you only had to say,” I laugh hearing him yell out no. Too late. I dive into a portal, tackling him into a hug.

“I’m here,” I squeal.


	11. Chapter 11

Kayn

“Name’s Sett,” Sett tells the class, standing at the front along with a few other students I’ve been forced to meet over the last few days. How is he my age? He’s like twice the size of anyone in the classroom.

“And I’m Qiyana,” a haughty girl says standing beside Sett.

“Alright class, does anyone have any questions for any of the new students?” Professor Graves asks, several hands going up. “Zoe, Lulu, Ekko and Jinx, put your hands down. Let’s pretend the school can be normal for thirty seconds. Um, Tristana, what’s your question?”

“So you’re a vastaya right?” The yordle asks, pointing at Sett.

“Only half on my ma’s side,” he swaggers. I don’t know how you can have swagger while saying your half vastayan, but apparently Sett can.

“You a mongrel then?” Draven calls from the back of the room, a chuckle to his voice.

“That’s right. Which means I ain’t got none of that pure vastayan nobleness. So I ain’t got no qualms about putting my fist through that face of yours,” Sett smirks, cracking his fingers. I think the entire class must turn around and look at Draven who has gone an odd shade of white. I’ll admit, I smirk. Yeah, I’m not sure even your brother would measure up to this guy. Which again begs the question of how is he my age?

“Neeko has a question,” Neeko squeals, waving her hand around until the professor looks over to her and nods. “What are your favourite colours?” Of course it’d be about colours.

“Anything that makes me look amazing,” Qiyana smirks, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“Er, I dunno. I kinda like purple,” Sett shrugs.

The new starters get grilled for a while longer until the professor tells them to take a seat. We’re all told to open our exercise books and answer some questions that are on a worksheet. I raise an eye to the small portal that opens beside my desk, my girlfriend’s hand coming out and scribbling a red heart onto my work. I glance over to the side to see her grinning. I just smirk back, grabbing her hand with mine. I feel her trying to pull her hand back, but I just shake my head at her. Grabbing a pen in my other hand I write over her hand, ‘Property of Kayn’.

“Zoe, is there a problem?” Professor Graves asks. I keep hold of her hand, still smirking as she starts to blush.

“Er no, not really,” she lies. A book haphazardly propped up to hide her portal.

“Then why aren’t you writing anything?”

“Well you see, um, my pen, er, my pen only likes it if I write about unicorns, and this work isn’t really about unicorns, so my pen stopped working,” she rambles, trying again to pull her hand back.

“Uh huh. Well I have a non-unicorn pen. Use that,” he says, grabbing a pen off his desk and starting to walk over to her. I let her sweat a little longer before she tugs on her hand and I release it. The force causes her to fly back on her chair. I put my hand to my mouth, hiding my snigger as she looks at what I’ve written over her hand. She shoots me a scowl before looking back at the professor.

“You know what? I think my pen is fine. Look, it works. Must have just been having a moment,” she continues. I just continue to laugh to myself. Serves her right if she wants to mess around like that.

“Property of Kayn?” She huffs after lesson. “Property of Kayn? And I don’t even have time now between lessons to scrub this off. It’s a good job you’re cute, otherwise I would be very angry.”

“Yeah? What would you do? Throw sparkles at me?” I smirk, my arm draped over her shoulder as we head to our next class.

“I’d throw something at you,” she pouts. Throw? For a moment the corridor around me falls silent and I hear the sound of metal echoing off the walls. My eyes glance to the lockers along one wall.

_“He just threw a set of lockers at them!”_ I hear Xayah’s voice almost panicked. My footsteps stop and I can feel my heart starting to beat faster and faster. Wildly I look at the wall and for a second I can see Varus’ face before mine. See his turning purple as the air is choked from him.

“No. No. No,” I whisper, shaking my head trying to dislodge the memories. “That wasn’t me. That wasn’t me.”

“Kayn? Kayn?” I hear Zoe’s voice almost like I have water in my ears. Everything sounds distant before all of a sudden everything snaps back into focus and I feel my body jump. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe right. Everything is too close.

“Zoe take his bag. Kayn, you need some air?” I hear Talon now talking to me but all I can think about is him running away from me. No, it wasn’t me. It was Rhaast. It was Rhaast he was running from.

“No, I’ve got him Zoe. Look, you take his bag to our next lesson. Neeko can you take mine? I’ll sit with him,” Talon continues to say and I realise someone else is supporting my weight. A few other students have stopped to see what is happening but I can’t focus. I need to focus. I need to quiet my mind. Come on Kayn. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Someone has their arm around me, guiding me over towards the wall, telling me to sit down. I feel clammy and out of sorts. Shutting my eyes I try and focus on my breathing. I need to stay calm. I need to find my focus. And my focus is easy to find. It never leaves my side. It writes things on my work and pours glitter over my bed.

That’s it, think of Zoe. Come on Kayn. Think about cheerleading practice later. Think of how much Zoe loves it. Think of the new routines. You need to practice that routine. In my mind I trace through the steps, remembering each one. It’s simple but it starts to work. I’m not sweating as much, my breathing isn’t as harried.

I have no idea how much time has passed. I’m lost in my own little world for a moment until I eventually open my eyes, the corridor around me silent and empty.

“You ok?” Talon asks as he sits beside me. I nod my head, I feel exhausted, like I’ve just run a marathon or something. My body is still shaking, goosebumps prickling over my skin. 

“What happened?” I ask, my voice cracking.

“You had an episode. Poor Zoe. You know, if you’re going to nearly collapse from these things, you can’t be doing that onto Zoe. She’s too tiny,” he chuckles, trying to keep the mood light.

“I collapsed?” I ask, the last however many minutes feeling like a blur.

“Not fully. You started to stumble. I caught you. How are you feeling now?”

“Not fully with it,” I admit. I turn to look at Talon and see the worry on his face.

“Has your master said anything about seeing a psychiatrist or something? Because when you have freak outs Kayn, you really have them,” he tells me.

“He says maybe. Depends on how long it takes me to sort it out.”

“Well that’s great,” he says sarcastically, shaking his head. “So what triggered this one?” For a moment I don’t remember. I look up and down the corridor before realising what it was.

“The lockers,” I say, bowing my head. “I can remember throwing them at you.”

“Kayn you have never thrown a locker at me. Rhaast threw lockers at me, but you are yet to try that,” he says, a slight smile to his words.

“His memories are mine too. I just keep seeing things. All the time,” I admit. “Nothing should have triggered that, but just talking to Zoe all of a sudden did.”

“Just blame Zoe,” he smiles, again trying to keep the tone as friendly as possible.

“I can blame her for many things, but not this,” I sigh, looking across from me. What do I need to do to get rid of this? To stop these memories? Because it’s not just the memories themselves, it’s the feeling of isolation that come with them. Whenever I have an episode, I’m reminded of how it felt to be trapped inside of him. To be dying.

“You want to skip next lesson and head outside for a bit?” Talon asks.

“What lesson is it?” I ask, my mind going completely blank on everything.

“Cooking. I figure getting you with some colour back in your face is probably better than watching Jinx blow up an oven and Zoe murder whatever food she’s trying to cook,” he chuckles.

“She is better with cakes now,” I half defend her.

“Only because she decided baking them would win her a boy. Which it didn’t. Not the one she wanted anyway,” he teases before standing up and reaching down for me. Sighing I grip his wrist, him pulling me back to my feet where I feel incredibly unstable.

“Lucky Ezreal,” I smirk, Talon having to literally hold me up. My legs just feel so weak. Genuinely my whole body feels like I’ve just finished some hard circuit training or something. It gets like this though after I have a moment. My breathing gets so off kilter that I induce panic attacks. Then my whole body just feels weak. I hate it.

“Just think though, with no Zoe, you wouldn’t get to write messages to her on her hand in class,” Talon smirks at me.

“You saw huh?”

“Of course. And I chuckled to myself when she flew off her chair when you let go. I’ll message Neeko and let her know we’re getting some air. She can tell the teacher.”

“We’ll probably get detention,” I warn but Talon just shrugs.

“Then we get detention. Look at it this way, you go to that lesson and you’re going to get nothing done. At least this way you can get yourself back to normal,” he points out. I guess so. In the short term at least. I just wish I knew how to get better in the long term.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the next few chapters are a little slow in coming out. Work is a thing right now, and the covid cases here are starting to skyrocket so i have a feeling some new restrictions are coming in soon and it's all just getting very overwhelming. But i will keep going with this :)
> 
> Please enjoy this chapter ^_^

Sett

“He seemed fine in lesson,” Qiyana mumbles, sitting beside me at a counter as we watch other students come in. Looked like Kayn had a panic attack or something in the corridor. Zoe certainly hasn’t shown up here yet.

“Yeah, Zoe said somethin’ about that the other day. He had some accident apparently,” I whisper back to her. “She didn’t say what.”

“Really? Sounds interesting,” she winks at me.

“I know. But none of his friends are saying anything,” I tell her.

The professor comes in and starts to take a register, but still Zoe and her squad haven’t arrived. Eventually she bursts through the door, holding up a bag and with this odd vastayan girl with her. What’s her name? Neeko or somethin’ like that. Only briefly met her yesterday.

“Sorry sir,” Zoe says, her face quite pale. “Um, Kayn isn’t feeling well. Talon’s with him.”

“Again? Both of you sit down. I’ll talk to those two when they arrive.” I glance to Qiyana, her interest clearly piqued by this. So this is clearly a regular occurrence.

Apparently we’re making some cookies or somethin’. Thankfully the prof’s got ingredients for us because I did not know anything about buying any stuff. But if there’s one thing I can do is cook. My ma is the best damn cook around and you bet she taught her boy how to use the kitchen.

“You two know how to cook?” The professor asks and I just nod as I’m handed a bag of ingredients.

“I don’t cook,” Qiyana says, not moving from her seat.

“You will. Because if you don’t cook, you get to clean the room down afterwards. Your choice,” he laughs, dropping her bag in front of her and walking off.

“I’ll pay you to mix this _stuff_ together for me,” Qiyana sneers into the bag.

“I want enough to take Phel out for a meal,” I say to her and she nods. “A decent meal. No greasy shit. He don’t like that.”

“Deal.”

“Great. I’ll make you some great cookies up,” I snigger.

“You better. You know I don’t stand for second best Sett. I want to know what caused that guy to have a freak out like that. I mean he’d gone pale. Paler than the moon twins,” Qiyana says, leaning on the desk, her eyes fixed on the girl with the floaty hair as other students seem to be asking her stuff.

“Phel ain’t that pale.”

“Sweetie, yes he is. It’s why you like him so much. That pretty porcelain skin he has coupled with his dark hair. He’s a very pretty boy. But there’s something odd about that other boy. Not Aphelios. He’s just a cutie. But that boy with the black hair. His hands are so dark. And he has weird face markings, but he’s not vastaya,” Qiyana muses as she pokes at a pot of chocolate chips.

“He ain’t the only one. You seen that guy with the silver hair,” I nod over to the tall guy talking to Zoe. “Check his hands out. What the hell is up with that? He ain’t vastaya either. But those are claws and I know claws when I see ‘em.” I have claws. Not like my ma has, she has really sharp claws. But I have like half claws. My nails will rip through shit pretty easy.

“What’s your animal instincts telling you?” Qiyana purrs, her eyes fixed over on the others.

“Dunno. Somethin’ about them makes the hair on my neck stand up. There’s somethin’ not right,” I say, starting to mix up a cookie mixture. I am gonna make the best damn cookies and then give em to Phel later. Wonder if anyone has some vanilla essence. A few drops of that and they’ll be perfect.

“I mean I thought we had weirdos. This school is crawling with them,” Qiyana adds in, taking hold of a nearby bowl as the teacher glances over.

I’ve got both mine and Qiyana’s cookies in the oven when I hear the teacher call over to Zoe. I glance over as do a lot of other students.

“You said Talon was with Kayn. Any idea where they are?” He gestures around the room.

“Er, I have his bag,” Zoe reaches down, pulling up a black backpack. The teacher doesn’t seem to care though.

“Can his bag cook? Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He had a panic attack,” she gestures over to the door. “I can portal and find him if you want?”

“And lose another student? No, you’ll stay here. I’ll speak with both Talon and Kayn when they arrive.”

“He can’t help it you know,” Zoe continues. “He’s just not himself at the moment.”

“More himself now than he was the other month,” some guy nearby laughs. Oh wait, I remember this asshole. He’s the one that called me a mongrel. I crack my neck staring at him. God I can’t wait to put my fist into his face.

“Stop being so rude,” the unicorn girl hushes him. I know her name. Wait. It’s Soraka.

“Draven, do us a favour and put yourself in your oven,” Zoe scowls at him, folding her arms.

“Draven, I don’t need your input,” the teacher sighs, rubbing the crook of his nose with his fingers.

“Look, I’m just saying it. Everyone else is thinking it. And lets be honest, he kind of deserves to have hang-ups given what he did to everyone.”

“I never saw you helping out,” The silver haired guy says dryly, folding his arms as the teacher tries to again to get this Draven guy to shut it.

“You think I wanted to run after a demon? Nah, that was your mess.” A demon? I turn to look at Qiyana who just shrugs at me.

“He didn’t exactly have a say in it,” the silver haired guy continues. Meanwhile Zoe is almost radiating her anger. Her small fists clenched as if she’s going to go over and sucker punch this guy. Shame these cookies ain’t done yet because I could do with snacks for this.

“Did you?” Draven smirks at silver haired guy, and I know I’m missin’ somethin’ here. But before anyone can reply Draven literally vanishes. Or rather he shouts out and just seems to vanish behind the counter and then it’s quiet. Like deadly silent. The whole room goes quiet. Except for the teacher. He just sighs and turns back to the short girl now fixated on over stirring some mixture she’s got.

“Where is he?”

“Don’t know,” she shrugs, never looking up from her task.

“Bring him back.”

“Don’t know where he went,” she shakes her head.

“Zoe, he needs to finish his cooking.”

“Then he should have thought about that,” she says, her tone sounding so flat and focused. I ain’t heard her like this at all over the last few days. She’s so cheerful.

“Zoe,” the teacher tries again.

“No. He can suffer for a minute. I’m not bringing him back yet. Do you know how messed up Kayn’s head is right now? And you’re just standing there, letting idiots like Draven make fun of him? If he was here he’d have had another episode over talk like that. I’m glad Talon hasn’t brought him into class. I’m glad they’ve bunked this stupid lesson because you’re letting people say horrible things about him,” she snaps, throwing her bowl onto the counter.

“Zoe, Kayn can’t keep skipping lessons,” The professor says, clearly trying to calm her down.

“He’s not doing it on purpose. But Draven, he was doing that on purpose and you just let him.”

“Oh this is juicy,” Qiyana whispers as we both sit on our stools just watching everything. Neeko whispers something to Zoe but this girl is being stubborn as an ox. I don’t got a clue what she’s done with Draven, but she ain’t bringing him back.

“Zoe I will talk to you after lesson. But you need to bring Draven back.”

“Talk to me? Talk to me?” She squeals, her voice getting so high. I take a cursory glance into my oven to check on my cooking before leaning back onto the counter to watch this. “You better talk to Draven too. Don’t you teachers get it? Kayn has these episodes easily enough without being reminded about it all the time by people like Draven. You punish Kayn for skipping lessons but Draven just gets away with whatever he likes!”

One of her swirly portals opens up and I hear a holler before Draven drops back into the room. His face is pale, his hair a mess as he leaps up and points over to the girl.

“You trying to kill me!”

“If I was you’d be dead,” Zoe dead eyes him. Damn this is good.

“Sir, I’ve just been falling. I thought I was going to die!” Draven slams his palm down onto the counter before him.

“Both of you outside,” the teacher says, but these two are starin’ at each other and neither is backing down.

“Zoe! Draven! Outside this second!” the prof bellows and both of them start to head out. Damn.

“And I thought cookery would be a dull affair,” Qiyana chuckles. What in the hell was that all about?


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Yaaaaay. So shortly after i posted the last chapter, i was put in quarantine for two weeks after coming into contact with someone who had covid. Thankfully i didn't catch it. But it does mean i was basically locked in my room for two weeks T-T It was very stressful and i'm very sorry i couldn't post a new chapter. But i did write several. They're rough at the moment, but i can polish them now everything is a little more calmer :) 
> 
> So more apologies for this one taking a while. But i hope you all like it :) It's a bit of a fluff chapter between Talon and Kayn, but i needed some fluff these last few weeks lol XD

Talon

I glance over to the side at the guy laid over the grass beside me, his blue eyes staring up at the wispy clouds above us, his long hair splayed out under him. At least he’s looking a little less pale. I turn my own eyes back up to the sky. Thankfully it’s a lovely warm day, so us laying over the grass while Kayn tries to sort his head out is fine and we aren’t going to get soaked from rain.

“Bet as soon as that bell goes she pops up with cookies for you,” I smirk, glancing back to him and watching his cheeks go slightly pink.

“They won’t be cookies. They’ll be charred lumps of dough covered with pink sprinkles.”

“You’ll still eat one,” I chuckle, watching him get redder now.

“Well if Varus offered you something he’d cooked, wouldn’t you accept it?”

“Varus can cook. Zoe can’t. Also I’m not you.”

“I just hope she brings my bag back. I need that for this afternoon,” Kayn adds on.

“Neeko has mine so hopefully she will also bring my bag round.”

“I mean if Neeko has it, you’re totally getting it back. Zoe has mine. _Zoe_. Mine will be sprayed pink and covered in unicorns if I ever see it again.”

“You’re the one dating her,” I remind him. Since his transformation, Kayn is slightly more open with people. Only slightly but it’s a start. But I still think him and Zoe are the worlds oddest pair. When all is said and done, he still kills people for a job and she still throws confetti at people randomly. And yet the times he actually looks happy is when he’s spending time with her.

“She’s weird, I accept that.”

“Admit it, she makes you happy,” I grin, watching him go very red now. His blue eyes flick over at me, a scowl covering his face.

“Maybe,” he mumbles.

“We’re assassins Kayn, we’re still allowed to be happy y’know.”

“Talon you are the worst assassin going.”

“Ok fair. But just because you want that as a profession, doesn’t mean you can’t also be happy. By the way you should be like super good at that now because you are silent. Constantly. Can you please make noise when creeping up on people?”

“I’m not creeping. You guys are just noisy.”

“I mean, fair, but if you can make me jump at times Kayn, then you’re creeping. Because I am not noisy. I am not Ekko, Zoe or Neeko and you scare the crap out of me half the time,” I smirk, but looking over at him his face has gone solemn, his arms almost hugging himself over his chest.

“I scare myself too,” he admits. Pushing myself up I look down at him. I’m so not used to him having these hang ups. Kayn has always been so confident. He’s always known he wanted to be an assassin. Always known what he wants to do and always had the confidence to do it. But now it’s like he’s a shadow of himself.

“The scariest thing about you, Kayn, is I know full well you can dominate me in any sparring match we do unless we use knives. That’s all. And you could do that before you became a darkin. So nothing has changed there,” I shrug.

“I could slit your throat you know.”

“And I could to you too. But then neither of us would have anyone we could whine to about assassin stuff.”

“Yeah but you wouldn’t because you’re too nice,” he sighs, also sitting up.

“Maybe. You have no idea how much I wanted to kill Rhaast when I thought he’d killed you,” I say gently. I know, probably better than anyone, how much this must be affecting Kayn. And I know this because I still have nightmares of seeing Kayn getting impaled by that scythe. I often wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and still can’t walk past the spot where it happened. The image is just seared into my brain at this point. And if that’s how it’s affecting me, then I know it must be so much worse for the person that did get impaled.

“I have an idea. You did some stupid shit. Like trying to fight someone that could throw lockers at you,” he says, his eyes staring ahead, goosebumps running up his arms.

“I was more worried about the scythe honestly. I watched it cleave trees in two. I knew what it could do to me,” I say.

We continue to talk until the bell can be heard echoing around us and slowly other students start to filter out of various buildings. It should be lunch, so hopefully the others will find us before going to get anything. I don’t exactly have anything on me right now to buy my lunch with.

“Talon, Kayn,” Neeko squeals, waving over at us and dashing over, my bag held in one of her hands. “I have brought your bag Talon.”

“Thanks Neeko,” I smile at her as Kayn peers behind her, but there’s no sign of anyone else other than Varus.

“Um, Ekko has said he’ll meet us in the canteen, and um, Zoe has to talk to the professor,” Neeko explains, following Kayn’s line of sight.

“What did her cookies do?” Kayn sighs, looking to the vastayan girl.

“The cookies did nothing. Here, I’m guessing this is your bag,” Varus says, passing Kayn his bag. “She dropped Draven into a portal and argued with the teacher. She’ll join us.”

“A portal? On purpose?” Kayn asks, standing up and taking his bag.

“Oh very much so,” Varus smirks before stepping round to me, his arm coming over my shoulders.

“Why?” If I don’t miss the glance that Neeko and Varus pass each other, there is no way Kayn is missing it. “What did Draven do?”

“Draven wasn’t nice,” Neeko admits, her fingers fumbling together.

“To Zoe?”

“To you,” Varus adds in and Kayn just nods his head.

` “What did he say?”

“It doesn’t matter. He got dropped into a portal for it, sent god knows where, and now also has to talk to the teacher,” Varus says.

“You know what guys, I think I’m going to head back to the dorms. I’m exhausted,” Kayn sighs.

“No, Kayn should stay. It’ll be good for you to be with your friends,” Neeko smiles at him. But I watch the way he shivers. He’s reliving things again.

“She’s right you know. You should stay,” I tell him, but his face has just gone pale.

“I’ll be fine Talon. I just can’t be dealing with people talking and joking about what happened like it was nothing,” he admits.

“Kayn, stay. You aren’t going to help yourself if you keep hiding from what happened. You’re right, the jokes aren’t going to help you. But being around your friends might. Draven might have triggered you had you been in the lesson, but I daresay you’d have had a good laugh at Zoe dropping him into a portal and then arguing with the teacher over the whole affair,” Varus smiles.

There’s a pause, Kayn’s eyes fixed firmly on the floor. I glance to the silver haired guy stood beside me and then back to my friend.

“If you go back to your room now, Zoe will follow you to tell you about whatever hell she unleashed in cooking. Which means she’ll skip this afternoon’s lessons and likely get herself into even more trouble. And isn’t it cheerleading practice tonight? If she misses that because she has detention, she’ll probably struggle to keep up with the others,” I say, using every ounce of manipulation I have. A pair of blue eyes stare at me, his face in a deep-set scowl.

“I see what you’re doing,” he points at me. I shrug innocently.

“I’m just saying you wouldn’t want Zoe to get in trouble, now would you?” Where’s Cassi when you need her? She’d be so much better at this. But dropping Zoe’s name seems to have brought him around. His shoulders drop and he nods his head.

“Fine. I’ll go. But if Draven is a dick I’m going back to the dorms,” he warns. I’ll take that.

“If Draven is a dick, we’re all here,” I smirk. “I reckon between us he’ll think twice.”

“He will if Zoe’s there,” Varus chuckles. “You should have heard them arguing after the lesson.”

“Zoe was definitely not happy,” Neeko nods her head as we wander round to the canteen. We’ve barely entered the noise and bustle before we all hear a shrill voice squeal out.

“Kayn!” Several people turn to look at the guy whose head is now bowed, his cheeks bright red. “Kayn, I got detention. I can’t make cheerleading practice!” Zoe wails, running up to us all and throwing her arms around his waist. He doesn’t move, he just stands there, red faced as Zoe squeezes him and the rest of us snigger.

“Please let go,” Kayn whispers as I snigger at his obvious embarrassment.

“I got detention because Draven was a butt. He got detention too, but that’s not the point. I can’t make cheerleading practice. Will you let me know what I miss? Can you teach me the steps afterwards?” She looks up at him, her eyes shining.

“If you can’t go I’ll skip it,” he says, his voice low.

“But if Kayn doesn’t go Neeko will be alone,” Neeko chimes in. Now he does look up, his eyes meeting mine as he looks for some support.

“Neeko makes a fair point. As does Zoe,” I shrug.

“Some friend you are,” he huffs, trying to untangle himself from his girlfriend.

“I don’t make you that embarrassed do I?” Varus asks quietly as we watch the spectacle that is Kayn and Zoe.

“No one can make anyone more embarrassed than Zoe can make Kayn,” I reassure him.

“Good. Because I made cookies last period and I’m hoping you’ll try one at some point and let me know if they’re good. I’m not a sweet person so I have no idea. Kai seemed pretty convinced they looked good,” Varus adds on.

“I laid in the grass for an hour chilling, so I have nothing to offer back. But yeah I’ll try them. You coming round to mine after school?”

“Sure,” Varus smiles at me in such a way I feel my stomach knot up. “Well I don’t turn you as red as Kayn goes, but you still do go pink very often.” I retreat under my hood before he sees just how red he can make me go.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giving you a double chapter update here :) I hope you all enjoy ^_^

Aphelios

From my sister’s hand, I hear her phone buzz again, her eyes rolling as she looks at it.

“It’s Senna this time. I wish one of them would tell us what they’re talking about instead of these half riddles,” Alune sighs.

Something seems to have happened at some point this afternoon and it’s got Senna, Qiyana and Sett incredibly excited. I feel my own phone buzz in my pocket but I don’t need to check. I know exactly who it’s from and exactly what he’s saying. Apparently the three of them have news to tell us and they want to meet us in Alune’s room. Which is where I am now, sitting on my sister’s chair as she perches on her bed.

“I mean we saw them at lunch? What could they have possibly done in the last two lessons that require all three of them to come round? Doesn’t Senna want to spend time with her boyfriend?” My sister looks over at me and I just shrug. Don’t know why she’s expecting me to be able to add any sanity to whatever it is they’re up to.

_“Sett baked cookies,_ ” I tell her.

“At least we’ll have snacks I suppose,” she smiles. I nod at that. I’ve already had two photos of his tin of cookies. One without him in the picture and one with him in the photo.

Alune and I are still in our school uniforms given I came straight round to her room after our last lesson. The others said they’d meet us straight here, but apparently they’ve either taken one heck of a detour or they’ve got lost. School finished ages ago.

Eventually there’s a loud banging from her door followed by the sounds of Qiyana, Senna and Sett all trying to talk at once. Alune rolls her eyes, shaking her head before heading over and opening the door for them.

“What’s so important you couldn’t message me?” Alune asks, stepping aside as the other three spill into the room. I watch the three of them get somewhat wedged in the door as they all try and enter at once. There’s some arguing before the three of them seem to drop onto Alune’s floor.

“Ah nah Lunie, this shit is great,” Sett grins, leaping back up and striding over to me. He sits on the floor beside me and a tin of cookies gets pushed into my lap. An expectant grin covers his face, his ears almost twitching in excitement till I take one and nibble on it. Sett is deceptively good at cooking and these are no exception. I smile at him, giving him a thumbs up as I take another bite. His eyes just light up at my approval.

“Sett’s right, for once. This is the most insane stuff you’ll hear,” Senna adds in, pushing Alune’s door shut and wandering into the centre of the room.

“I’d like to make all aware that I found it out first,” Qiyana brags before sitting herself on the edge of Alune’s bed, a toss of her white hair as she just smirks at me and my sister.

“Going to elaborate?” Alune gestures, sitting beside Senna on the floor.

Of course Qiyana doesn’t just come out and say whatever it is she wants to say. This girl loves attention too much. There’s a smug grin covering her face as she glances around at us all first, checking each of us is looking at her.

“So you all know that there was some big ‘incident’ here a few weeks back don’t you? Senna said Lucien was pretty quiet about the whole thing. So I wanted to know what. Turns out the school was attacked. They’ve done a good job of trying to cover it all up, but you can apparently still see the damage in places. That’s why we were late, we wanted to see. Walk down some corridors and you can see the patches that have been filled in. Or the tree stumps everywhere. Turns out they used to have trees attached,” Qiyana begins, taking her time and enjoying that she’s in control of the story. I take another cookie as Sett leans heavily onto my legs, his head resting on my thigh as his eyes are now on Qiyana. Gently I slip my free hand into his hair, tickling his ears until they flick.

“Not to mention the students. Quite a few apparently got injured. Loads have scars and stuff,” Senna adds in. “Like the lizard girl. She has a scar on her arm that’s apparently from this.”

“Well we know there was some sort of attack,” Alune reminds them. “We knew that before we started here.”

“But what we didn’t know was it was a student that attacked the school,” Qiyana almost smirks as my sister looks to me. I sign over to her.

_“A student? Which student? Do they still go here?”_

“Phel wants to know who? Are they still a student here?” Alune asks. A look passes between the other two girls and Qiyana does smirk now.

“They still do. Because the student in question wasn’t fully themselves,” Qiyana says slowly, her eyes on my sister.

“Come on Qiqi, tell em the best bit. It’s great,” Sett grins. Another toss of her hair and Qiyana looks between me and my sister.

“The student turned into a demon and tried to murder everyone else here,” she reveals. A demon? Are they serious?

“A demon?” Alune says, glancing back to me. “Who told you that? Sounds like someone is pulling your leg.” My sister doesn’t sound convinced. It’d be just like these three to believe anything someone told them.

“No one mocks me Alune, you know that. I asked several people, all said the same thing. A student turned into a demon, tried to murder everyone before eventually managing to, sort of, turn back to himself. And I say sort of because he had quite the makeover apparently.”

“Are you guys sure someone isn’t just messing with you all?” Alune asks.

“Nah. I asked Lucien. That’s another reason why we’re late because I demanded he tell me what the hell happened. And it’s just like Qiqi tells it. Kid went crazy, turned into a demon and tried to kill everyone with some giant scythe. The other students got injured when they tried to distract him because that Zoe girl was trying to turn him back human,” Senna adds in, leaning forward in her excitement to say what she knows.

“So who was it?” Alune asks, clearly getting into the excitement from the others.

“It was Kayn. Zoe’s boyfriend. Turns out he turned into a demon, smashed the place to bits and then Zoe turned him back. Only he ain’t fully human anymore. And he keeps having episodes where he has panic attacks because of the whole thing,” Sett adds in. Kayn turned into a demon?

“Yeah so that Zoe girl is some goddess and then her boyfriend is a demon. Not only that, turns out the guy with long silver hair, he’s a demon too,” Qiyana continues. “We have officially been put in some crazy school.”

“And you’re sure about this? Like does anyone have any proof about any of this?” Alune asks, looking around at the others.

“Well that girl definitely has some crazy powers. Made a guy vanish in cooking. But don’t worry Alune, I’ve got receipts. Found her social media and she loves to post photos of her and her boyfriend. See, here he is from a few months back? Notice anything?” Qiyana holds her phone towards my sister.

“He hasn’t got any face markings,” Alune looks back at me. “Show Phel.” Qiyana turns her phone to me and I can see a photo of Kayn and Zoe. He looks somewhat unimpressed, but Alune is right. He has no markings on his face. Plus his hair doesn’t look as long. He has a long blue streak at the front but in the photo it’s much shorter.

“Because he’s a demon now,” Qiyana insists. “Don’t you think that’s wild?”

Wild is one way of putting it. But how does someone turn into a demon? How does someone turn back from one? So far, Kayn’s the only person aside from my sister I can talk to. He can understand my sign language. Even Sett can’t do that. I can talk to him and not have to rely on facial cues or basic hand gestures. But if he’s a demon do I even want to be hanging around with him?

“See it’s fine for you two, but those three are in our year,” Senna adds on, looking around at us all. “Do I want to be sat next to a demon in class?”

“No, you want to sit next to Lucien and those great cheekbones of his,” Qiyana purrs causing Senna to get flustered.

“Well I ain’t scared of no one. Demon or not,” Sett shrugs.

“We don’t all have your strength,” Senna laughs back at him. “And where are these cookies, because I was promised cookies.”

“Here. Sett’s feeding his to sweet little Phel,” Qiyana winks over causing me to blush.

“You cook these Qiqi? Because if you did I’m not touching them,” Senna smirks.

“You think Qiqi cooks? I did both and then split them,” Sett barks a laugh.

“And I’m insulted you think I couldn’t cook,” Qiyana fakes being hurt.

“Qiyana you wouldn’t know how to turn an oven on. But if Sett cooked them, I’ll have them,” Senna grins.

It’s nice being around these guys. Makes me forget that we’re in a different school where apparently students can turn into demons and try and kill the other students.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit self-indulgent because for a while i've wanted to have a chapter featuring these two and this seemed like the right place for it :)

Zoe

Kayn was less than impressed at going to cheerleading practice today without me. He was even more less than impressed when I showed up in his room as he was getting changed and asked him to show me what they’d gone over. I had a t-shirt thrown at my face and yelling of my name.

Still, I liked it when he was being grumpy, irritable Kayn. Made a change from him being subdued. I’m glad Talon was there earlier though. Between us we can bring him round from his episodes, but he’s still not acting the same as he used to. I wish there was more I could do for him.

Sitting on my windowsill, my window wide open, I just stare out at the night and the stars. It’s a pretty peaceful night. I can hear stuff coming from a few rooms nearby, but nothing much. Sounds like Taliyah is singing in her room while Cassi is having a heated phone call with someone in hers.

That’s when I see someone walking out over the dark grass. Technically we’re supposed to stay in our rooms at night, but given some of us can walk through walls, make portals or turn invisible, it’s a hard rule to monitor. Though this person can do none of those things.

Dropping into a portal, I pop up near them, clearly startling him as he jumps back, his hand held to his chest.

“Hi Varus. Hi Kai. Hi Val. Whatcha doing?” I ask, my hands behind my back as Varus catches his breath.

“Zoe. I was not expecting you,” he admits. “The other two say hi by the way.”

“I’m never expected. I’m like a ninja,” I nod. Varus just eyes me and my pink bunny onesie up.

“Uh huh. All those ninjas that dress like rabbits,” he chuckles before continuing to head off over the grass. I just skip after him.

“So come on, what you up to? No Talon?”

“Talon is asleep. I couldn’t sleep so I figured I’d go for a walk around the grounds,” Varus shrugs. “How’s Kayn? He feeling better from earlier yet?”

“Well he threatened to throw me across his room earlier so he’s feeling much more like himself,” I laugh. I notice the way Varus nods his head, his thin lips pulled into a smirk.

“That does sound like him. What about you? What are you doing running around school at night dressed like a rabbit?”

“I’m a bunny actually. And I was just chilling, y’know, looking up at the stars, wondering what my space dragon is doing. And then I saw you wandering around. Thought I’d come say hi,” I grin. Varus glances up to the dark night sky before looking back at me.

“Space dragon huh?”

“He creates stars and stuff. He’s pretty cool. He also gave me advice about how to save Kayn from Rhaast. Very arrogant though,” I nod.

“I’ll admit, a space dragon isn’t something I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen quite a bit,” he shrugs.

“Bet I’ve seen more,” I smirk, folding my arms. “You were trapped in a weapon for years right? _I_ was out exploring the universe. It’s very cool out there. Lots of planets and stars and stuff.” I gesture with my hands up towards the dark night sky.

“And space dragons,” Varus adds on with a sly chuckle. “You probably have. But you never saw Shurima when it was at its peak. The way the city would glitter in the sun, the buildings seemingly made from gold. And the Sun Disc sitting above it all, floating above the city. It meant everything to us. And it granted Ascension to those that were worthy of it.” For a second Varus sounds more excited than I’ve ever heard him, his eyes almost glittering in the moonlight before they go guarded and he glances down. “But that was a very long time ago.”

“Nah, the last Aspect of Twilight saw that. I think. Well Myisha sealed you guys away. Don’t know whether she actually saw Shurima and all that. It sounds pretty cool though,” I admit, watching him nod his head before he glances at his claws.

“It was. And being chosen as a God-Warrior was the highest honour you could get. To become an Ascended under the magic of the Sun Disc. Magic like that just doesn’t seem to exist in this world anymore. Not like the old magic,” he says.

“I know right? I remember there being magic like everywhere. Then I show up here, a couple hundred years later, and there’s barely any. Like sure there are mages and what not, but they can do parlour tricks compared to the real old magic,” I shrug.

“Right? Hey Zoe, what do you remember of the past. Before all of this?” Varus asks, gesturing around at the school buildings that surround us. I look around for a second, everything so still and quiet under the veil of night.

“Not much. I can barely remember my parents. Which seems bad of me I guess. Kayn says it isn’t, but I dunno. I remember being chosen by the Aspect. I think I was skipping a lesson or something. I just remember it giving me the chance to escape my teacher or I got to play with a cool ball. I chose the ball – obviously, who wouldn’t? – then I was the new Aspect and I got to leap in and out of realities. It’s pretty cool,” I say smugly. Varus smirks at me.

“You became an immortal goddess because you ducked out of a lesson. At least nothing about you has changed in the last thousand years,” he teases me.

“Well how did you become an immortal God-Warrior?” I ask, flying round in front of him.

“I’m not a God-Warrior anymore am I? I’m a darkin,” he points at me.

“Symantics. Darkin were once God-Warriors before you all tripped out and went a little off kilter,” I remind him.

“Off kilter? That’s a nice word for genocide,” he says before his eyes glance to the side and he falls silent. I watch his brow furrow as he’s listening to his hosts.

“Are they saying hi?” I whisper, a smirk on my face as Varus looks at me.

“It was Kai. He says what happened was in the past and I need to leave it there.”

“Kai’s right, you should, because I want to hear about how you became immortal. Clearly my story is underwhelming to you. So have at it mister awesome. How did _you_ become immortal? And don’t cheap out on me and say the Sun Disc. I _know_ the Sun Disc made people immortal. My space doggo has told me that much. But I want to hear how you, Varus, became immortal. Pre warning, I will be judging how cool it is.”

Varus gives a brief laugh, a slight shake of his head before he pauses and looks up to the sky. For a while there’s no sound, just the two of us standing there before he sighs and looks back to me.

“I’m not sure it’s all that cool. My sister, Valeeva, she was cool. She was a warrior. A spear maiden of Shurima. She was respected. I was simply her younger brother. I used to be a scout for her party. I was young and agile. I could slip between guards and sentries better than most. And if I got caught, I had a bow with me. I was a pretty good shot,” Varus smirks. I return the look.

“I’ve seen what a good shot you are with a bow. Though to be fair, Rhaast was a pretty large target,” I muse as we continue to walk out over the dark grass, away from the dorms. It’s lovely and quiet out here. No sound other than Varus as he talks about his past.

“My sister helped to defend a town for two weeks until reinforcements could arrive. She beat back every advance the enemy made onto the town. At night I would slip out and into the camp of the attacking force – gods it’s been so long I can’t even remember who they were – but I listened. I took back information about their next moves. Once the battle was won and the town saved, my sister was honoured. She was to bathe in the light of the Sun Disc and be reborn as a God-Warrior. But she insisted I should be taken in too. The request was allowed. We both became God-Warriors of Shurima. It was pretty cool,” he looks at me, that smirk still on his face as he remembers. “Whether it’s ‘Aspect of Twilight’ cool, I’ll leave that up to you. But I became a God-Warrior because my sister was something else. She was so strong.”

We’ve wandered near a picnic table, and I hop up onto it, sitting on the top as I watch Varus talk. Watch him glance up to the sky as he recalls things no one alive has ever seen. No one but him. I understand that wistful tone to his words. He regales me with battles and banquets and is more animated than I’ve ever seen him. I think I can see why Talon likes him so much.

“We were immortal. We were gods,” he eventually sighs, walking over and jumping up beside me, sitting atop the table with me. “Until we weren’t anymore.”

“Darkin huh?”

“When our last emperor fell, we didn’t know what to do. Shurima fell into ruin as we argued. I had already lived a century as a god, but I had only been young when I was changed, and I think some of the immaturity never left me. Some spoke of wanting to rebuild Shurima, but others of us spoke of battles. The arguing turned into wars and they lasted a very long time. We started to fade. We were no longer proud gods, we were becoming monsters.” He flexes a claw again. “I remember Rhaast as he used to be. He was once a noble warrior. But he lived for the fight. And he became bloodthirsty. I guess we all did. Mortals meant nothing to us. They lived and died so quickly. We were eternal until Myisha started to trap us. My sister warned me, but I was too arrogant. I didn’t believe anything could harm me. But it did. And then I was trapped in darkness for a very, _very_ long time.” He sighs and leans forward. It’s strange to think really that Varus is also a darkin. He’s the same as the creature we fought so hard to kill a few months ago. But Varus never exudes any malice from him. He’s quiet and calm. Basically the exact opposite of me.

“I’d say that’s a pretty cool story. Mine’s still cooler because mine has a space dragon. Yours needed more space dragons,” I nod.

“Of course. I’m sure a dragon would have made everything a lot cooler,” he half laughs. “Can I ask you Zoe? Where are you from? Originally. Don’t say the stars.”

“I could say the stars y’know, I spend a lot of time up there,” I laugh, kicking my legs out as they dangle off the edge of the table. “Originally, I’m from somewhere near Mount Targon. I can’t remember where. A village maybe. I was a Lunari. I should probably go back there some day. I haven’t been back in years. Centuries even.”

“Targon? I’ve been there. Never climbed it though. Did you?” Varus looks at me and I just smirk.

“Climb Targon? Look at me. I’m like four foot nothing. No, I haven’t climbed Targon. I’m not _that_ crazy. When the Aspect chose me it took me to the top of the mountain in a portal. It was pretty cool. Didn’t have to fight any wars either. So you mentioned a sister? She survive?” I glance up at him, watching him shrug.

“Maybe. She was so smart. I wonder if she’s out there somewhere. Is she still herself or is she trapped in a weapon like I was? If she is, I’d want to help her somehow. But I don’t even know where to look for her.”

“Bet if you asked Talon he’d help you look,” I muse with a slight giggle as I realise Varus has just started to blush.

“I think it might take a while. I doubt Talon would want to traipse around the globe after me,” Varus says.

“I think he’d enjoy that. Kinda mad when you think about it huh? Here we both are, immortal beings, sitting on a picnic table in a mortal school,” I giggle. Varus also starts to laugh beside me.

“Both dating mortals too,” Varus adds on, turning to smile at me. “Sometimes I wonder if I deserve this. When I sit in my room watching a movie, my arms around Talon, I wonder whether I really deserve to have that happiness. Then Kai reminds me I paid for my crimes. I was trapped for a very long time.”

“Kai’s right y’know. Everyone has things in their past they aren’t proud of. I know I do. But for us, our pasts are so long that there’s a lot that stack up. Especially if you became a genocidal demon at some point. But you were locked alone in a bow. And then you helped me save Kayn. Trust me Varus, you’ve paid your dues there,” I nod very matter-of-factly.

“Well you’re now the host for the Aspect that locked me in there so I guess I should accept your view,” he smiles. “Crazy though to think that we ended up in a school of all places.”

“Crazy to think how much things have changed. I remember Kayn showing me a phone for the first time and I was like ‘oh man that’s amazing!’, because when I left this world, phones were definitely not a thing. Especially pocket sized ones,” I laugh.

“For me it was the clothes. I lived my life in the desert. I was used to robes and tunics. Shirts and trousers were baffling,” he laughs. “Cars were an odd thing too. Had to have Kai and Val really talk those over with me.”

“The food is better though. Can’t believe how long I went without having ice cream sundaes,” I giggle, getting hungry just thinking about it.

“Oh definitely. Though I’m told I eat rubbish and I need to eat healthier. But pizza is the best. And I ate healthy for years as a warrior. I should be allowed some pizza now.”

“We should all be allowed pizza. Hey we should go get some at the weekend. We can go on a double date,” I squeal, getting excited.

“Yeah ok. Will Kayn be ok with something like that?”

“Like in general because he’s a moody prick or because he might freak out? Because he’s always moody and I can help with the freak outs, so he really has no excuse,” I grin. “It’ll be great. We should get t-shirts.”

“Er, t-shirts?”

“Yeah, one for me and Talon saying ‘my boyfriend’s a darkin’. We can match,” I giggle.

“Firstly, Talon would hate that. It’d also be hidden under whatever hoodie he has on that day. Secondly, Kayn would hate that even more. I don’t think he’s quite warmed up to the idea that he’s a darkin now,” Varus points at me.

“Kayn hates everything. And if I get Talon a hoodie version he has no excuse. But what colour? See I think they should be pink just so I could see Talon in pink, but to be nicer to him I could get his in black or something.”

“Dark blue or dark purple suit him the best,” Varus sniggers.

“Purple it is,” I laugh.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is doing OK wherever you are in the world. I know a few places are going back into lockdowns and such. Stay safe guys and enjoy the new chapter :)

Kayn

The ticking from the clock on the nearby wall is irritatingly loud. Is it this noticeable to everyone that comes in here? Or am I just focusing on it because otherwise I’m going to be focusing on how much trouble I’m about to get into?

Across from me, the principal’s expression is dead pan. She just stares at me as I try and not fidget. Not only am I having to deal with this now, but given the message came in my last lesson, I’m going to have to field a million questions from my friends afterwards.

“Another skipped lesson Kayn,” she finally says, breaking the silence and I just find myself nodding my head.

“That’s what? Your fourth in the last two weeks?”

“Last week was a school holiday,” I point out, my voice low.

“Last two school weeks then. Given we’ve only just started this week, it’s not exactly a figure to be proud of. Especially as when you skip lessons you seem to take another student with you. Talon has missed two lessons and so has Zoe.”

“It’s not like I ask them to come,” I sigh. “But I’m not normally in a position to argue either.”

“The school does understand your situation Kayn, but you can’t keep continually missing lessons like this. Especially not when you’re taking other students out of their lessons too.” I nod my head again, my eyes glancing around the immaculate office. Seriously there isn’t a book or piece of paper out of place in here.

“I don’t think you understand it as well as you might think,” I mumble. Everyone says that. They all say they understand. But none of them have been impaled with a sentient scythe and literally had control of their body ripped away from them. My whole body shudders and I just wrap my arms around my chest as I focus on her desk. My eyes just staring into the wood. Don’t lose it Kayn. Keep it together.

“Kayn, what happened to you was awful, we understand that. We also understand that your flashbacks are completely out of your control. The school has suggested counselling to try and help you through it, but I understand your guardian isn’t too keen on the idea.” Her tone is almost soft. Almost caring. But from what I gather, after the Rhaast incident, Master Zed was less than impressed with the way the staff here handled it. He doesn’t want any of their help with this.

“He doesn’t trust that it won’t make me worse. I don’t think he gets, and neither do I, why you’re being so caring now when the staff were the ones that outright wanted to kill me,” I admit, looking her in the eyes now. I watch her flinch for a moment before she sighs, her fingers rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“Kayn, we’ve spoken about this. From the information we were given, we were told you were dead and there was a creature on campus trying to kill our other students. No one wanted to kill you.”

“Rhaast did,” I whisper, looking away again.

“I do think that counselling might help you with this. We as a school don’t want one of our students to be having PTSD episodes in the middle of the corridors. It’s not healthy for you. But I understand why, given this was where everything happened. The triggers for you are literally in the same building where you’re coming to learn.”

“I don’t want counselling,” I say, once again not meeting her gaze. I’d rather discuss those events with my friends, with the people that know what happened rather than have some stranger find out about everything.

“You can’t keep skipping lessons,” I’m told.

“I don’t mean to. But god you have no idea how hard it is when I’m in lessons and other students make snide remarks. Or when I have a flashback to seeing one of my friends nearly dying before me,” I say, my anger flaring up as I look back to her now. “I was awful to them. I tried to kill them. And I know they say it’s all in the past, but it doesn’t feel like that. Sometimes I just need some breathing room from stuff. I don’t tell those two to come, they just do. Probably because half the time I can’t even walk straight during the episodes. I nearly collapsed on Zoe yesterday in the hallway. Talon had to cart me over to the wall and sat me down. And you know what triggered it? The lockers. The goddamn lockers! Because Rhaast threw a set of them at Talon. And I remembered it right at that moment.”

I can feel my heart rate rising. My breathing getting quicker. I clench my fists on my lap as I stare down, almost willing myself not to have another breakdown because that will not help my case at all.

Across from me the principal just sighs. The only noise other than that ticking clock for a minute or two. I’m too emotional right now to contribute. I need to calm myself down. I go through the breathing exercises my master has taught me while doing my best to avoid an episode.

“Kayn, I’d like to talk to your guardian again. I’ll be giving him a call and asking him to come in. You’re clearly still having serious problems coming to terms with everything and I’m worried about your mental health right now. In the meantime, I’ll be contacting your class teachers regarding the absences. If you have an episode either in a lesson or between lessons, you will be excused for a few minutes until you can calm down. By that, I mean you find somewhere quiet and get your thoughts together. You stay in the school, you don’t just skip off to your room. And, if Zoe or Talon are with you, they’re to report to the class first, or ask the teacher if they can accompany you. If you think you can calm down without them, send them back to the class. And not whole lessons Kayn. If you think you’re going to be out for the entire lesson I want you to report to reception and ask if you can sit there. The school will help you get over this, but you can’t just do whatever you feel like. But this will only be for the meantime until I can speak to your guardian. Is this a deal?” She asks, her eyes narrow as she studies me. I’m not exactly in a position to argue so instead I just nod.

I really want to be out of here as soon as possible, but given how on the brink of an episode I was then, I’m not sure I have the strength. I repeat back to her what she’s said, doing my best to keep my breathing steady.

Eventually I’m asked to leave. Stiffly I stand and stagger towards the door. My legs seem to have a mind of their own right now and I stumble once I’m into the corridor. But I don’t pause. I need some fresh air. Hurriedly I dash to the nearest outside door and almost slump to my knees the second I’m outside. I take in deep breaths, almost gulping the air down.

Given school has finished, I’m not expecting many people to be around so I’m surprised when I realise there is someone nearby. Looking up I see the new guy, Aphelios, looking at me, a quizzical look on his face. I currently can’t talk. My breathing isn’t quite right for that. Luckily he’s one of a few people in school where this isn’t actually a problem.

_“Sorry. I’ll just be a minute.”_ I sign to him. He steps closer to me and signs back to me.

_“Are you ok? Do you need help?”_ I just shake my head. What I need is to go back in time and tell myself that making a deal with a sentient scythe that can transform into a cat is a really stupid idea.

“Sorry,” I choke out. “As you can see, I have panic attacks quite frequently.” Panic attacks. I hate it so damn much. I hate being like this.

_“Kayn, mind if I ask you something?”_ He says before looking somewhat awkward. I know that look. I know that look and I know what’s about to come. My skin prickles from the goosebumps.

“Sure,” I nod. He pauses, unsure if he should go on. I just bow my head, staring at the concrete path below me. Of course with me staring at the path I can’t exactly see what he says. Come on Kayn, you’ve got this. I look back up to see him shyly looking at something before he signs exactly what I knew he would.

_“I heard a rumour, about you. I wanted to know if it’s true or if it’s just a rumour?”_ I sit back and just look up at him. I think my silence makes him wonder if I understood what he asked.

“I bet I know the rumour,” I say quietly before he starts to sign again. He blushes slightly and gives me an awkward shrug.

_“Sorry. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I just don’t really like rumours. I like to find out if they’re true or not.”_ Sighing I nod my head. He seems pretty cool. Kind of shy I guess, but he has only just started here.

“If the rumour was that I turned into a demon and tried to kill people, then yes, it’s true,” I admit, the words almost sticking in my throat. It’s still so hard to admit. For a second I swear I hear _his_ laughing in my head, and my whole body flinches.

I look back up to him to see how confused he looks. He keeps starting to sign things only to stop and glance away, his lips screwing up as he seems to be thinking over something.

_“Are you ok?”_

“I’m currently having a minor panic attack outside of school. So not really,” I say with a touch more sarcasm than is probably necessary. He just nods his head at me.

_“Do you need me to get help at all?”_

“No, it’s fine. These things are a pretty frequent occurrence,” I sigh.

_“You want company while it passes?”_ Do I want company while I have a freak out? Not really. Honestly I’d prefer it if no one ever saw me have one of these again. Not Talon, or Zoe or even my Master. If I could only have them while I was alone in my room, I think I’d feel better about them. But that isn’t likely to happen. Besides, this guy seems pretty calm. Kinda like Talon I guess. And Talon is normally a help while I do try and calm down. Zoe’s methods are to throw everything and the kitchen sink at me in an attempt to take my mind off it. But that’s how she deals with any problem, and I know she does it because she cares.

“You want to sit around outside school with an idiot flinching at nothing, be my guest,” I sigh. Should I call Zoe and let her know what’s happened? Or maybe I should just give her a break from dealing with this. It’s not fair I keep putting on people. It’s not their mess to deal with, it’s mine. I made that dumb decision with Rhaast. It was my body he took over. It was me that tried to kill my friends.

A tap on my shoulder alerts me to how frantic my breathing has got, and I glance up into the stoic face of Aphelios.

_“Where’s your phone? I’m ringing your girlfriend. You’ve gone super pale.”_

“I’m fine..,” I start to say, my words clogging as I remember the burning sensation of the scythe in my stomach. The pain as it got pushed further in. As it killed me.

I don’t know whether Aphelios managed to call Zoe. I’m guessing not given he can’t talk. Maybe he messaged her? I have no idea. What I am aware of is after a while I can hear her voice. I feel her slender arms around me, holding my shaking body tight to her. But my hearing has gone muddy. I can’t hear what she’s saying, I just know she’s there. I just know she’s there for me.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is doing ok :) I can't believe it's nearly christmas. This year has just been crazy. 
> 
> Please enjoy another chapter. This one features Sett and Zoe coming up with very bad ideas XD

Zoe

Was I worried? Of course I was. Kayn’s panic attacks could seemingly be triggered by the smallest of things. But I have no idea what started this one off. I know he was called to see the principal, but I have no clue what she could have said to trigger that. That was a really bad one. He was deathly pale and sweating when I got there.

Sometimes I can’t feel when he’s having a panic attack. Not the small ones anyway. But big ones like that remind me of how it felt when Rhaast used to push his luck and try and takeover more of Kayn’s body. It’s like his magic gets warped somehow. I can sense that. I wasn’t expecting to see Aphelios there, but he looked super worried.

Glancing behind me I look at where Kayn is laid out on my bed fast asleep. I love my sleep bubbles. Super useful for when your boyfriend has freakouts. Tiptoeing closer I grab for Marshmallow, my stuffed unicorn, and gently slide it under his arm. Smirking I pull my phone out and take a photo. Kayn, you’re adorable whether you want to be or not. But I also want him to get some rest. So as much fun as putting bows in his long hair sounds, I decide against it. I still run my fingers through it for a moment though because his hair is super soft and silky.

Spinning on my toes, I drop into a portal and pop up outside of a white door. Nearby I can hear music and what sounds like Ekko singing to it. Ekko sometimes like to think he can rap, but more often than not he forgets half the words and just sort of mumbles over the parts he messes up. Makes me laugh every time he does it.

I knock on the door in front of me and hope I have the right one. I mean, I don’t actually know what room number is Aphelios’ so I’m trusting my portals here. In fact when the door opens and Sett looks down at me I assume I very much have the wrong room.

“Hey Zoe,” he grins, his body almost filling the door frame. Why is everyone so much taller than me?

“Hey, you know where Aphelios’ room is?” I ask, rocking back and forth on my feet. Sett just grins and pushes the door open wider. Behind him I can see the other guy sat at the desk. He smiles and waves at me as Sett just folds his arms.

“You think my room would look as neat as this?” He barks out a laugh. Aphelios shakes his head and I watch him write something on a notebook in front of him before he holds it up.

_Everything ok? How’s Kayn?_

“See that’s why I came over,” I tell him. He beckons for me to come in with his hands. Sett just continues to grin as he steps back into the room.

“Phel was saying that your boy had a moment. Has them quite a bit huh?” Sett says as I step in the room. It reminds me a lot of Kayn’s room actually. Everything seems to have a place, but unlike Kayn’s room there’s more personal stuff. Photos are on a shelf and there’s little things dotted around the room like a figure from some show he must like and a red cat plush on another shelf.

“I’m going to guess that by now you’ve probably heard about what happened huh?” I hedge a guess. Aphelios looks slightly awkward before nodding but Sett seems to bounce over to the bed, sitting on the edge, the door now shut.

“So it’s all true then? That he turned into a demon right?” Sett asks almost eagerly. I guess I can’t blame him. It’s such a crazy thing to have happened. I’d probably react the same way if I started a new school and found out something like that had happened.

“Yeah, that’s all true,” I admit, staring down at the floor. There’s a tap on my shoulder and Aphelios is stood next to me, he gestures over to his chair before he takes up a spot on the bed beside Sett. The bigger guy throws an arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer to him as I sit down.

“I mean I think I’d have an odd freakout if something like that had happened,” Sett says.

“He has them pretty frequently. I wanted to come round and just say thank you for sitting with him earlier. He had to see the principal and I have no idea what about. Probably about his episodes. But I was just glad that he wasn’t by himself. And, well, you didn’t have to stay with him, but I’m glad you were with him and I wanted to thank you for that,” I ramble. Aphelios just smiles at me before pulling his phone out and typing something on it. He passes the device over to me.

_Enter your phone number. I would have messaged you, but I don’t have your number. This way if I see him having one again, I can let you know._

“Sure. So you guys liking it here?” I ask, concentrating on the phone before me as I put my number in.

“Sure. Never been to a school where you actually have demons and gods,” Sett grins smugly. I glance up and just smirk at him.

“Damn straight. And FYI, I am like the best goddess you are ever going to meet. The others can be so uptight and stuffy. Alright, here’s my number. I’ve put it under ‘The best most amazing person in the world aka Zoe’,” I brag, handing the phone back to Aphelios. He gives me a smile and a nod.

“That’s wild y’know. So you can use magic and shit right?” Sett asks, leaning forward. Beside him, Aphelios wriggles from his grasp and walks over to a whiteboard hanging on the back of his door. He unhooks it and starts to write something on it as he wanders back over to the bed.

“Oh yeah, magic is easy,” I tell them.

“See I can’t do shit like that. I can punch stuff real good though,” Sett laughs, cracking his knuckles as Aphelios just rolls his eyes before sitting neatly beside him. He turns the whiteboard round so I can read it.

_Sett is very easily amused by things like magic._ There’s a slight smirk on his face as he glances to the larger guy sat beside him. Sett’s ears twitch as he reads the writing before looking at Aphelios.

“Magic’s cool. Stop being cruel.” Aphelios just shrugs, wiping the board clean with his hand.

“Magic is absolutely the best. Especially my portals. No one else in school can make those,” I brag, enjoying the way that Sett seems super excited by it.

“So if you can do all this magic, why not use it to help your boy out?” He asks me. Help Kayn out?

“I mean I did that when he went full Rhaast. That was the demon’s name by the way. Rhaast. He was a nasty piece of work. But yeah, I used my magic then to help,” I say, but Sett just shakes his head.

“Nah, not like that. Like I dunno, fix his head, so he doesn’t have episodes anymore,” Sett adds on. Aphelios looks bewildered before hurriedly writing on his board and turning it around to me.

_That’s a bad idea. Ignore him._

“No, don’t ignore me. Think about it. You can make magic portals right? You’re a goddess sort of, right? So surely you can like click your fingers or somethin’ and he stops having freakouts.”

_No. Terrible idea._ I watch Aphelios underline ‘terrible’ a few more times to emphasise it. But could I do that? I want to help Kayn. And my magic helps calm him down. Could it just stop his PTSD all together? I’ve never used it for something like that before. But Sett is making sense here. I have all this magic. Why haven’t I used it to help Kayn?

_You can’t just fix someone’s head like that._

“But what if I could?” I muse, putting some thought into this. I’d need a spell for it though. I don’t really know spells. My magic normally just does what I want it to do. But I feel this would be different. Are there spells for something like this? Do I know anyone that might know?

“See, she thinks it’s a good idea,” Sett nods, elbowing the guy beside him and pointing at me.

_Zoe no. You can’t ‘fix’ someone’s head like that._

“People do shit like magic all the time. Like meditation and stuff. That helps peoples heads. So magic totally could too,” Sett continues. Aphelios scowls at him and just writes ‘no’ filling the board he’s holding. “Don’t you angry write at me. Look, why not use magic for something like that? I mean why have magic if you can’t make people better?”

“I mean some people have healing magic. This would be a sort of healing magic,” I continue.

_No. Healing magic is different._

“Don’t sound different to me,” Sett shrugs. “Like when I fell and my ma asked that old lady down the road to fix my leg. That was magic right?” I watch Aphelios sigh, his head falling forward before he just shakes his head and starts to write again.

  1. _You didn’t fall. You were in a fight._



“But I fell. That’s how I got the injury,” Sett says.

  1. _You weren’t injured from the fall. You were injured by a knife_



“It was only a little one,” Sett tells me, gesturing with his fingers.

  1. _A knife wound on your leg is different to fixing someone’s mental state._



“You got stabbed?” I ask the red headed guy.

“Look, it wasn’t a big fight, just a scuffle really. Y’know, me n’ Phel were on a date, some guys made some comment, so I punched their teeth out. Problem was I tripped and this punk managed to stab me. Like who brings a knife to a fist fight? Cowards, that’s who. But my ma knows this old lady and she fixed my leg right up. That way I didn’t get in no more trouble. Just got a scar there now.” Sett explains getting stabbed in the leg like it’s nothing, but my eyes are just wide. He must be like super strong.

“How’d you get that scar?” I ask, gesturing to the bridge of his nose and the pale pink scar running over it. Sett runs a finger over his nose before looking like he’s about to answer.

_Another fight._ Aphelios has already got the board turned around with the answer on before Sett can even start to reply. I giggle at the way the bigger guy starts to blush, his ears flattening.

“You make me sound like a thug.” There’s a pause as Aphelios glances up at him, smirking before pointing at him and nodding. Sett’s mouth twists into a pout, his shoulders sagging. “I’m not a thug.” Aphelios glances to me and just winks before writing something down.

_He’s not a thug, but he does get into trouble a lot._

“Like not that much. Look ok, sometimes people need to be thumped, I can’t help I’m good at that,” Sett blusters over his embarrassment.

“I do agree. Like maybe not thumped. But I like to throw bubbles at people that tick me off,” I grin, creating a pink bubble between my hands. “Although to be fair, I guess I throw more bubbles at Kayn than anyone else. He’s fun to throw bubbles at because he gets all pouty at me and he has a cute pout.”

“Phel’s got a cute pout too,” Sett smirks, turning the tables and making Aphelios get all embarrassed. I like these two. They’re fun to hang out with. Which absolutely means I should hang out with them more.

“You guys busy this weekend?” I ask, watching them both closely. Aphelios shakes his head, his face pink as Sett leans in closer and pokes at his cheek. “Great. You can come hang with us. We’re getting pizza!”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finally broken up for Christmas holidays after two very hellish weeks at work. I'm absolutely exhausted, but i have updates for this fic :) So i have several chapters written that need cleaning up and notes for later chapters all ready to go so hopefully while i'm off work i can get a few more updates out :)
> 
> I've also just started to write a chapter with a new POV character we haven't had yet. It's always exciting writing as a different character :) But i'm not giving spoilers as to who it is.
> 
> So please do enjoy this short chapter. I wanted to do a double update but i really like the next chapter and i'm not perfectly happy with it just yet. It needs a few more tweaks before i upload that one. So here's Aphelios being a cutie and some of the characters we don't see too much in his class :) Hope you all enjoy it :)

Aphelios

Glancing at my phone I see about a dozen messages from Sett. I can’t help the smile that comes to my face as I see several random emojis. Most are of flexing arms but then he sends a heart as well. I reply by sending him a gif of a cute cat pawing at a window. That reply garners actual words from him.

_I ain’t cute._ He so very is though. And he gets another cat gif.

_Look I just miss you is all. Don’t see why you can’t be in my lessons._ I reply and remind him I’m older than he is but all I get in reply is a pouting emoji. Shaking my head, I wander into my next class. I’ll admit the layout of the school is pretty easy to follow. I so far haven’t been unable to find any of my classes.

Walking up to my desk, I sit down as the rest of the class arrive in their friendship groups. It’s a little lonely. Sett has several people in his classes with him. I only ever have Alune, but she’s not in this class with me. Seems all the new friends I’ve made so far are all younger than me.

“I have arrived,” a vastayan boy announces, swaggering into the room. Several people smirk at him as he struts over to his desk.

“Don’t think anyone was missing you Rakan,” a red-haired girl tells him. There’s a snarky tone to her words, but the guy doesn’t care.

“Sarah, everyone misses me when I’m not around. No need to hide it,” he brags. “I see the way you check me out at practice.” There’s a charm to his words as he saunters past, winking at her. It’s so odd being in a school where other students are vastaya. I’ve been pretty used to Sett being the only one.

She just rolls her eyes at him as my attention is drawn to another guy and girl entering. The guy is pretty big. Tall and broad, with dark hair and a scar on his eye. He’s chatting to a shorter girl with dark hair. They pass by someone else’s desk and insults are whispered between them and the brown-haired guy they pass. I won’t lie, I don’t enjoy being by myself. Everyone here knows each other.

Another buzz from my pocket and I check it out to see a selfie from Sett with Zoe grinning behind him. He really seems to get along well with her. To be honest though they are very similar. They both seem to get excited by dumb things. Still, Zoe does seem nice. I kinda like that Sett does get along so well with her. She has a nice group of friends – even if some are demons apparently - and it’s made getting to know people a little easier. They’re all younger than me, but at least it’s nice outside of lessons.

“Hey new guy, no phones,” the large guy sniggers from over at his desk. Awkwardly I just nod and put it back into my bag, my eyes now looking forward. “Haven’t you got some dumb sounding name?” I glance back over and just shake my head. My name isn’t dumb. It’s not common, but it certainly isn’t dumb.

“What is it?” Turning away I reach for my sketchbook I carry with me to write things in. There are a lot of notes to Sett in here. As well as my ‘no’ page that literally just has the word ‘no’ in large letters covering it. I use that page a lot.

I write out my name and hold it up to him. I watch his eyes move across, reading it before he looks back over at me.

“Ah that’s right. You’re dumb right?” I’m not dumb. I’m mute. I write that under my name given I’m guessing this guy doesn’t understand sign language.

“Mute, dumb. Same bullshit,” he shrugs, the girl with him sniggering behind her hand. “Just means you can’t squeal if you get punched.” There’s a bluster to his words but I just raise an eyebrow to him. Seriously? What is he? Five?

“Word to the wise here friend. This little rabbit has a very vicious guard dog,” I hear a voice I know well. Turning round I look at where Sylas is stood. He’s the only guy in this class from my old school. He looks at me and just smirks, his long dark hair hanging messily around his shoulders. “Don’t look at me like that Aphelios. You know I’m right.”

“The vastayan guy, right?”

“That’s the one. He has a rather solid left hook,” Sylas says, absently running a hand over his own jaw. He should know. Sett’s punched him enough.

“I ain’t scared of no kid younger than me,” the other guy just laughs before his eyes come back to me. “So what? He your boyfriend then?” I’m assuming that’s directed at me so I just nod, watching the smirk that comes to his lips.

“Shame the vastayan guy is gay. I feel he could do better,” the girl says, her tone sly as she eyes me up. Well tough luck there because he’s mine. How I wish I could tell her that.

“Gays are cowards anyway. You want someone stronger than that,” the other guy continues before a dagger is slammed into his desk causing me, him, the girl and about a dozen people around us to jump. Where the hell did that just come from?

“What was that Darius? Not sure I heard you.” The hand holding the dagger belongs to a short girl with fiery red hair and she has an expression that looks like she literally wants to kill someone. Probably the guy before her.

“Y’know Kat, you weren’t exactly a queer advocate a few weeks back,” the guy, who I assume is Darius, says to her.

“Oh but Darius, her dear baby brother’s come out since then,” the girl adds in snidely and I watch the red-haired girl’s glare go to her.

“Bitch I will gut you right there.”

“Simmer down Kata. You know I’m right,” the other girl just scowls. “Cass used to be more fun before she got turned into a mutant and you used to be more fun before you started defending your weird fake brother.” The red-haired girl literally growls before lunging forward at the other girl. However a pair of strong arms lock under hers, hauling her clean off the floor as she struggles to get to the other girl.

“Kat, calm down,” the guy holding her says.

“Let me go Crownguard,” the girl hisses, struggling and flailing around in her efforts to get loose.

“Garen, Katarina, sit down. I’m not in the mood for any of your bullshit today. I’ve just had an hour of Lulu asking why books have pages and Ekko trying to rap to get out of the fact he hadn’t done his homework. Keep whatever lovers spat you two are having to your social times,” the teacher says in a gruff voice, his fingers caressing his forehead.

The brown-haired guy releases the girl, his face now scarlet before he shuffles back off to his seat. The girl just stays where she was, staring at the dark-haired girl.

“Katarina. Seat. Now. I’ve also just had both your siblings. I am not now dealing with you and whatever bullshit drama you’re bringing to this lesson.” She turns to glare at the teacher before huffing at him.

“I doubt they gave you much fuss.”

“I’ve given up wasting breath on your brother and his hoods, but your sister deciding to touch up her eyeliner mid lesson complete with a stand-up mirror was something I could do without. Get to your seat now, otherwise it’ll be detention.” There’s a pause before she stamps over to a desk.

“Interesting school, wouldn’t you say?” I hear Sylas hiss from the other side of me. I turn to scowl at him before just shrugging. I won’t deny it’s odd, but I’m not saying that to Sylas. I don’t really get on with him. It always feels like he has some sort of ulterior motive. Plus Sett hates him.

Throughout the lesson I keep feeling my phone buzz in my pocket and can only roll my eyes. What’s he doing? He’s in lesson too. It does make me smile though. It always does when Sett texts me. Sometimes I feel sort of awkward because I can’t properly talk to him and tell him how he makes me feel. But at the same time I’m fairly certain he knows. I mean I hope he does. Then again, Sett did once take a screenshot of his phone to show me the cracked screen. Sometimes he’s not too bright.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas :) Mine was a little lonely as i normally spend it with my sister but due to covid restrictions i couldn't this year. But i still had a lovely time :) got some lovely League presents too which is always good :)
> 
> And here's a new chapter for you all :) I promised some more of Zed being a dad and here's some of that :) There will be more to come :)

Kayn

“Lee, your footwork is sloppy. An opponent wouldn’t need to knock you down, you’ll fall on your own. Sort it out,” Master Zed scolds a dark-haired guy currently sparring with Jovn. The guy nods, adjusting his feet before starting to edge around Jovn’s bulkier frame. I just stand by a pillar, watching, my arms folded.

“I don’t remember telling you to take a break,” Master Zed looks over at me, his scarlet eyes boring into mine. I give a slight nod, turning from Lee getting grappled to the floor and reach for my training pole, continuing to lunge it into the air.

“That is not the weapon I told you to practice with,” Master Zed says, his voice much closer to me now. I turn to look at him now standing a few feet from me and give a half-hearted shrug.

“The principles are the same,” I reply, swiping the pole before me.

“Use the weapon I told you to use, boy,” Master Zed tells me. I steel myself, gripping the pole tighter. I won’t. I refuse to use it.

“I can’t,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. 

“Summon your weapon,” Master Zed says, his voice never changing pitch. I just stare forwards, looking at the pole in my hands. In my stomach I feel that pain of the scythe as it cut into my flesh. The pole I’m holding starts to feel heavier. My hands shaking

“Sorry master. I can’t,” I reply. The pole slips from my hands, clattering noisily to the floor as I can’t grip it anymore, my hands shaking too much.

**“You’re weak Kayn,”** I hear his voice hiss in my head and I clamp my quaking hands over my ears.

“Lee, Jovn. Training is over. Go to your rooms,” Master Zed orders. I hear them comply but I’m too busy shaking my head trying to dislodge a voice that doesn’t even exist anymore. I killed him. I killed him. He’s gone forever.

“Kayn, sit,” Master Zed’s hand grips my quivering shoulder and pushes me to the ground. He sits before me; his legs crossed and indicates for me to do the same. I feel my body twitching as I take a position I know well. Legs crossed, my hands resting in my lap.

“Calm your mind Kayn,” Master Zed tells me. He starts to take deep breaths and I find myself matching him like I used to when I was a child. I watch his chest rise and fall and match my breathing to his. My body stops shaking as I manage to gain control over my own mind.

“Sorry master,” I say once my mouth will form words again. Master Zed just stares at me in silence for a few more moments before he speaks.

“Your principal rang again. She seems to think you require therapy.” There’s no accusation in his tone. No disapproval or annoyance. But still I feel the heat in my face and bow my head. I hate this. I hate this so goddamn much. Why am I so scared of myself? Why do I keep allowing myself to get so freaked out? It’s gone, it’s done with. And yet I flinch every time I see the scars on Zoe and Neeko. I wake up in the middle of the night screaming from nightmares filled with _his_ voice. And I hate it all so much.

“Kayn!” I snap my head up from staring at my hands and see the way my master’s brow is furrowed. His scarlet eyes staring at me. “Listen boy. Do you zone out like that in classes?”

“Maybe. Normally it’s just one of my freak-outs,” I admit.

“Do you think you need therapy?” My master asks me and almost on reflex I shake my head.

“I don’t want to talk about it all with someone. I don’t want people to know what I became. What I did.”

“From what I saw, it was Rhaast that did the worst of it. He was the one slicing people up with a scythe,” My master tells me. Everyone says that. Everyone. They go to great lengths to remind me that it was Rhaast and not me. But it was me wasn’t it? It was my body. I made the deal with him. I lost. I died.

Goosebumps run up my arms, my eyes widening as I recall it all. The pain. The heat. The loneliness.

“Kayn!” I startle again and look at him, watching as he sighs at me. “You aren’t having a mission until you sort this out. Losing focus like this when working could be fatal. Your episodes. What happens? I’ve trained you how to calm yourself down when your mind starts to wander. Are you not following the things I’ve shown you?”

“I follow my training master. But, they come on so quickly,” I push my hand back through my loose hair. “I try and stay calm, but when an episode starts, it’s on me in seconds. Something will trigger it and then I have no time to try breathing techniques because I just start to panic.”

“When you’re on a mission Kayn, the situation can change in a second, you cannot allow yourself to get flustered and lose focus. No matter how quickly things come onto you, you need to maintain your focus. Even when you have suffered something traumatic. To lose focus at the wrong time could be a disaster,” he tells me, his voice calm and I just nod my head, not wanting to meet his gaze.

“I hear his voice sometimes,” I admit, my voice low. “In my head.”

“Nothing more than a nightmare Kayn. The creature is dead. You, Shieda Kayn, won. Not him. But now you have to master your self-doubt. Because I daresay that’s what your issue is.”

“Self-doubt?”

“Hmm. Something I never thought you of all people would have. You’ve always been arrogant and cocky. But right now you’re drowning in self-doubt because from what I can see, you don’t think you should have won. But you did Kayn and you deserved that.”

“Sometimes I’m not so sure,” I sigh.

“Lose that attitude. I’m not bowing to your school and getting you therapy unless I think you need it. I think you can get yourself out of this. But you need to keep your mind sharp. The moment you feel an attack coming on, I want you going through your breathing exercises. I don’t care where you are Kayn, I want you to run through them. I will ring the school and explain that if you need to do them in a lesson, the teacher is to allow you to.”

“So I have to look like a moron in class?” I ask. Some arrogance slipping into my tone as I smirk up at him. I watch the way his lips half smirk back at me.

“Boy, I have seen the people you associate with in school. I have no doubt that if you need to meditate for five minutes, your colourful girlfriend will somehow be able to pull people’s attention over to her.” That causes me to blush. Partially because hearing Master Zed talk about Zoe is still embarrassing to me, but also knowing that he’s absolutely right. Zoe is rather good at getting attention on to her when she wants.

“She is a tiny bit extroverted,” I admit, watching the way he raises an eyebrow at me.

“Clearly you also need to work on what you call ‘a tiny bit’,” he says with almost a wry smile to his thin lips.

“Careful master. People might think you’re trying to make a joke there,” I smirk back now.

“Oh look, you haven’t lost your arrogance. Make sure you hold onto that. And Kayn, I want you to practice summoning your weapon. You need to lose your hate of it. It’s yours now. Only yours. If need be practice in your room. Even just leaving it in your room where you can see it will help.”

“Yes master,” I bow my head.

“You’re dismissed,” Master Zed tells me. I give a nod, pushing myself to my feet and starting to head off. “And Kayn, find Jovn for me and send him through. I have a mission for him.” Again I just nod. Not allowing the frown to cover my face until I’m out of the room and into the hallway outside.

No missions? Goddamn do I hate everything right now. I got missions even while I was infected, but now I’m not and I don’t get them. And to give them to Jovn? My fists clenched I storm up the stairs, looking for the older man.

He’s busy standing in a hallway chatting to Lee and a few other trainees. They all go hushed as I get closer. There’s an accusation in their eyes. The way they all look at me pisses me off.

“Jovn, master Zed wants to see you,” I tell him. He gives a brief nod, but he doesn’t move. No one does. They just continue to stare until I turn from them and head back down the stairs. Only once they think I’m out of earshot do I hear them start to whisper again. I’m not surprised to hear Nakuri’s name get mentioned along with the word ‘monster’. I daresay no one here really trusts me. Not after I cleaved Nakuri in half.

“Breathing techniques Kayn,” master Zed says as he passes me in the corridor. I glance up, only then realising my breathing has become harried. I give a nod, composing myself as master Zed walks silently upstairs.

Above I hear sudden hurried movement, hear the muffled voice of Jovn apologising as other people scatter. But I block it from my mind. I calm myself down by thinking of how angry Zoe will be if I’m having an episode later. She wants to go for pizza with everyone. I’ve said yes which means I need to get back to school and shower and change. I can’t do that if I’m having a panic attack.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone :) Here's hoping that 2021 is better than 2020 was :) And to start the new year off right, i've got a brand new chapter for everyone :)

Talon

“Just a small freakout huh?” I ask, looking at where Kayn lounges against the wall. He nods his head, his eyes occasionally flitting back over to the stairs.

“Tiny one. He wants me to summon the scythe and I really don’t want to see it,” he admits. Honestly I don’t blame him. If I never see that thing again I will be quite happy.

“Does he think that’ll help you? Summoning the scythe I mean?” I say, watching him shrug.

“Who knows at this point? I don’t. I just want to get my head sorted out,” he says. “I can’t be doing with constantly having the flashbacks.”

“Well at least tonight you get to focus on pizza,” I grin, watching as he smirks back to me.

“Great, I get to sit there and pick strawberries or something else dumb off my food,” he sniggers before looking back over towards the stairs. “Aphelios, over here.” I look towards the mute boy as he walks over. He’s dressed pretty smart given we’re just going for pizza. A nice shirt and jacket. I don’t really know him that well, but I do know Sett. It’s rather hard to ignore Sett in our lessons.

“Hey Aphelios,” I smile at him, watching him nod at me. He signs something to Kayn who just smirks.

“Don’t worry. Ekko’s not here yet, let alone the girls. Sett has time to find a shirt he likes.”

“Yeah, my sister is coming so the girls will likely be a while,” I add in. I don’t know why Cassi is coming and I don’t think she was invited, but she’s decided she’s coming and nothing I say will dissuade her from that decision. I know, I’ve tried.

“Zoe has already sent me through selfies of her in different hair bows and asked me to pick one. Like how the hell do I know what hair bow she should wear?” Kayn sighs.

“It’s because she loves you. She values your opinion,” I tease, watching him blush.

“Does Varus message you photos of shirts and ask you to pick one?” He fires back at me. But I’m just smugly enjoying his embarrassment.

“Varus is sane and doesn’t need to do stuff like that,” I reply, still smirking at his pout.

“Look we’re all aware that Zoe is crazy. I can admit that,” Kayn says before glancing over at Aphelios. “Yeah, Varus and Talon are dating. But they’re very normal compared to me and my constantly over the top girlfriend.” I look to where Aphelios is smirking before he signs something. Kayn just sort of sniggers to himself.

“Sett might be over the top too, but no one can outdo Zoe in that area,” he smirks.

We aren’t waiting too much longer for Ekko and Varus to head down. As is common, there’s some slight teasing between them. Ekko still likes to poke fun at the fact that Varus can hear other people as well as occasionally talk to them. I think it’s a cute quirk. But Varus is far better than I am at shutting down his teasing. I just sort of fumble when people tease me.

“No girls yet?” Varus asks, ignoring whatever dumb thing Ekko is asking now.

“There’s a hairbow dilemma. Possibly,” Kayn shrugs.

“And Sett is also choosing a shirt,” I say, gesturing over to Aphelios. I feel sort of sorry for him. He can’t just chip into the conversation. The only person here that can understand him is Kayn.

“Alright people, I’m here, lets get pizza,” Sett announces, walking over to us all. Goddamn this guy is huge. Like he’s younger than Darius but I’m fairly certain he’s taller and broader.

As I suspected, we’re waiting a little longer for the girls. Taliyah arrives first looking cute but nervous in a pretty summer dress. Varus pokes me before pointing at how awkward Ekko has become as she comes over to us.

“I’m not late, am I?” she asks, looking around.

“You see Neeko or Zoe anywhere?” I smile at her.

“I was worried I was taking too long,” she admits, fiddling with her short hair as Ekko keeps trying to say something and apparently floundering over his words.

“Never think you’re late when Zoe is going anywhere,” Kayn shrugs. “Takes her forever to decide on dumb shit. Also, Taliyah, this is Aphelios.” I watch Kayn gesture over to the other dark-haired guy who just smiles.

“Nice to meet you,” Taliyah smiles, while also signing with her hands at him. “Sett’s mentioned you in lessons. You’re mute right?” I watch the older guy nod his head, signing back at her.

“Both me and Taliyah will understand you Aphelios. And yeah, he talks about you a lot,” Kayn sniggers. I watch as Sett’s cheeks go pink, his ears flattening down.

“I mean I do, it’s true. But also look how good looking he is. Gotta brag a bit right?”

“Absolutely. I fully agree. I mean if your boyfriend’s cute why not say it?” I hear Varus say beside me and I find myself turning neon and sinking under my hood.

“Cheap shot,” I whisper at him, catching sight of Kayn hiding a snigger behind his hand.

“You are cute though,” Varus chuckles, his rough claw reaching for my hand, his fingers locking with mine and only sending me even more red.

Thankfully my embarrassment is hidden from most people as Zoe literally falls from the sky above where Kayn is stood. Nimbly he side steps away, allowing her to crash down and get attention on her and not me.

“Spoil sport,” she huffs, leaping to her feet and glaring at her boyfriend who just shrugs.

“I’ve told you not to do that,” he warns her. Not that Zoe listens, she’s already skipping over to Taliyah and gushing over her dress even as Kayn is still talking.

“Any sign of Neeko?” I ask her. Zoe glances over at me, her eyes catching sight of Varus holding my hand and just smiles. I know I must still be red.

“Her and Cassi are coming over. Cassi was busy with her makeup for ages and then she insisted on helping Neeko pick out an outfit. I said I’d meet them here,” she tells me before going back to fussing over Taliyah’s dress and making Ekko blush by saying how pretty she looks.

It takes a while longer for Neeko and my sister to arrive. Which is not surprising at all. We’re walking round to the shopping centre for pizza. And yet my sister is in a pretty dress, her face done up in makeup and her hair up in a bun. Because why would you not go completely over the top when just going for pizza with your friends? She even glances at me, a sly smirk on her face because she _knows_ I want to comment on how overdressed she is. I won’t though. I’m not giving her the satisfaction.

Walking round though is pretty uneventful. As we get closer to the building, Varus and I walk alongside Kayn and Zoe. I don’t miss the way Kayn’s eyes get a little more frantic. Thankfully it’s evening so the shopping centre isn’t anywhere near as full as it can be. God though, it’s so odd him being so frightened of things. He doesn’t have a breakdown. He does go quiet and I notice his eyes half close, his breathing more regulated. Must be exercises his master has told him to follow.

“You want to share a pizza, or get separate ones?” Varus asks me, his claw still clutching at my hand.

“Depends. You intending to get pineapple on your pizza again? Because I’m not here for that,” I smile, looking over at him. I watch the smile that pulls at his lips.

“Two pizzas it is then,” he sniggers.

“It’s gross,” I sigh, shaking my head.

“What’s gross? Your obvious PDA?” I hear my sister ask. Glancing to the side I see her smirking at me.

“No. Pineapple pizza.”

“Agreed.”

“Cassi, why are you here?” I ask, watching as she looks at me in this way she has like I’m asking the most obvious thing in the world and am just too dumb to see the answer.

“Lets see. There’s you two being sickeningly cute. Then we have everyone’s favourite goddess and demon pair. Taliyah and Ekko – she can do so much better. And then the two new guys who are also a pair. Did you really expect me to send my girl Neeko out with all you loved up couples by herself? No chance. Neeko is not third wheeling for anyone,” she jabs at my chest with her claw.

“There’s another reason,” I say slowly, staring at her. There always is another reason with my sister. Though she does make a fair point. It must not be much fun for Neeko when we all hang out with our other halves.

“Maybe there is. But I’m not telling you,” she winks at me. “As far as you need to be concerned Talon, I’m simply here to keep Neeko company.” I study her for a second before looking around at our group as we head towards the pizzeria.

“You want to talk to the new guys, don’t you?” I watch at the tiny sly smile that tugs at her lips.

“Why my dear brother, are you maybe growing a brain in that head of yours?” She smirks at me, but before I can say anything further, Neeko comes bounding over to ask me a question about pizza.

“So how are you guys settling in?” Taliyah asks Sett and Aphelios once we’re all sat a table. Kayn is currently resting his forehead on the table, his eyes shut as Zoe rubs her hand up and down his back.

“Y’know, it’s a new school. Gotta do that whole settlin’ in stuff. Everyone gawking like you’re some side show,” Sett shrugs, one of his arms around Aphelios’ shoulders. Casually I glance beside me, but Varus is too busy reading the menu. I could put my arm over his shoulders. Maybe? That’s not odd is it? But I feel so self-conscious doing things like that. Varus is normally the one that hugs me.

“Yeah but in our school there’s no way you can be the side show. We’ve got Sparkles over there galloping through the hallways for no random reason,” Ekko sniggers.

“I’m not a unicorn, I don’t gallop. I skip,” Zoe comes back, never missing a beat despite her still seeing to Kayn. “Unless I change into my unicorn onesie, then I’m a unicorn, but I still skip.”

“I feel that what Ekko is, rightfully, pointing out, is our school does have more than its fair share of oddities,” my sister almost purrs, this almost genuine smile on her face.

“You ain’t vastaya are you?” Sett asks, looking her straight in the eye. She just shakes her head.

“No, I’m human. You may have seen my older sister stabbing people in the halls. Has very bright red hair. And the person permanently enveloped in a hoodie over there is also my brother. See, human siblings. If you’re asking about my tail, feel free to ask away, but you won’t get an answer on it.” That fake smile stays on her face, but I just scowl at her now.

“Neeko thinks Cassiopeia’s tail is very pretty,” Neeko bobs her head around. I glance back to Varus and decide that putting my arm around his shoulders is maybe too big of a movement, I could at least, maybe hold his hand. Why do I sometimes over think this stuff so much? Zoe and Kayn don’t over think this. Though right now Kayn doesn’t seem to be focusing on much.

“Yeah I’ve seen the red-haired murder chick. I hear she’s in some of Phel’s classes. Threatened a student in class the other day apparently,” Sett grins. Both me and Cassi roll our eyes at the same time.

“That’ll be Kata,” I sigh.

“What about Aphelios? Does Aphelios like school?” Neeko asks, her wide eyes looking over at him. He gives his head a nod before signing something. I glance to Taliyah as she watches him.

“Aphelios says it’s nice, but difficult to make friends.”

“Difficult to make friends? Aphelios, you are now friends with me which means that you get to share all of my friends too,” Zoe almost announces. “See, now you have lots of friends. Including me. I’m the best part. Obviously.”

“How thrilled he must be,” Kayn mutters, his head still down on the table.

“You hush and get your breathing sorted out,” Zoe warns him. I watch Kayn shake his head, but she is right, he’s not exactly in a position to argue with her right now.

“Should do as she says, otherwise she’ll be ordering for you,” I smirk, watching as Kayn’s eyes open and slightly glance over the table at me.

“As my friend I’d expect you not to let that happen,” he warns before flinching somewhat, his eyes shutting again. “Zoe, whatever you’re doing I can feel that.” I look at the portal hovering over him as Zoe keeps reaching in and pulling out some of her bows, clipping them into his long hair.

“I’m sure you can. But you can’t do anything about it right now,” she giggles to herself, starting to plait part of his hair.

“You should put in that quaint set of hair clips you have that spell out your name,” Cassi muses, watching the whole spectacle before turning back to Sett and Aphelios. “And you two, what can you tell me about the girls that started at the same time as you?”

“Girls?” Sett asks, his ears twitching as he looks confused.

“Well I know your boyfriend there has a sibling given they both have facial moon tattoos. But what about the others? I know there are others. Lucien’s girlfriend for starters. What can you tell me about them?”

Why the heck does my sister care? I look to Varus who shrugs at me clearly picking up on what I’m thinking. He places the menu down, his arm coming over my shoulders and hugging me. Thank god I didn’t have to initiate this. I lean back onto him, watching my sister and trying to guess what she’s thinking.

“Well Phel’s sister is his twin. Then there’s Qiqi who has the short white hair. Senna’s the one with the boyfriend here. She’s got the thick dreads in her hair. I mean I think there’s a couple of others but those are the ones I know the best.” Beside Sett I watch as Aphelios hurriedly types on his phone before placing it upright in the middle of the table. Almost instantly everyone leans over to read it. Zoe even pauses in what she’s doing to have a look at it,

_My sister is called Alune. Qiqi is actually called Qiyana. Sett has pet names for them both. Qiyana can be very confrontational and arrogant. Senna is pretty nice. She’s very good friends with my sister._

“But what about what they like? I know one of them has a boyfriend, but what about the others? Any relationships there?” Cassi continues and both the other two just shrug.

“Don’t know anyone brave enough to take on Qiqi,” Sett barks a laugh, Aphelios nodding alongside him. I watch Cassi sit back, her claws going to her mouth. What’s she after? Because this is my sister and she is absolutely after something.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. So since my last chapter things have been very hectic. My boiler at home broke so i didn't have hot water or any heating for a few days, the UK went back into lockdown, my PC has been messing up and didn't work at all for a few days - so all in all a bit of a mess lol.
> 
> But i do have a new chapter for you all :) Sett and Zoe are up to Sett and Zoe stuff :) 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy :)

Zoe

“Neeko, ok so super important question, can’t wait. Need to ask now,” I say, bursting through a portal into Neeko’s room and causing her to squeal as she falls off her bed and into a heap on the floor.

“Zoe?” She asks as though there is anyone else that could just appear in her room like this.

“The one and only,” I grin, settling myself on her floor. “So, important question. I need some advice.” I watch as she pushes herself up and sit opposite me. Her head cocks to the side slightly, her wide eyes listening, because Neeko is great at listening. Fairly certain she only gets like half of what I talk about, but she’s still a great listener.

“Neeko will try and help,” she smiles.

“Ok, so if you were ill, and maybe some magic could help, would you want someone to make you better?” I ask, skirting around the point I want to make.

See, since Sett mentioned me helping Kayn, I can’t shake the thought. I could use my magic to make him feel better. It helps to calm him down while he’s having a panic attack, but maybe I could use it in one shot and make him better completely. Should I be talking to Kayn about this? Maybe. But also if I can’t do this I wouldn’t want to get his hopes up. Because I know he doesn’t like feeling like he does.

“If Neeko was ill? I wouldn’t want to be ill. I don’t like being ill. But magic doesn’t seem right. If someone is ill they can get better,” Neeko thinks on it, her eyes going up to her ceiling.

“But what if they weren’t getting better? Like what if you were feeling really sick and you couldn’t get better and someone might be able to use magic to help? Would you want them to use it?” I push my point.

“Um, maybe. Neeko thinks it would depend. Neeko does not like being ill, but also magic sounds like it is too easy Zoe. What are you thinking about?” She looks back at me, her wide eyes searching my face, but I just keep a grin there.

“Just thinking about stuff y’know how it is. One minute you’re thinking about ice cream sundaes and then you’re thinking about whether the ability of having god like powers could actually be used for something other than putting bows in your boyfriends hair,” I talk quickly, not making full eye contact.

“Who is ill?” Neeko asks, her tone slow as she thinks about what I’m saying. Then I hear a gasp and look back to her, her fingers pointing at me. “You want to do magic on Kayn.”

“No I don’t,” I lie awkwardly.

“Zoe, you cannot use magic on Kayn like that. Kayn isn’t well but he can’t just be made better,” Neeko tells me.

“But if he could, I’d be a bad girlfriend for not helping him, right?” I force a grin back onto my face as Neeko just sighs and falls backwards onto her floor.

“No Zoe. Bad idea.”

“But I use my magic to help him when he has a panic attack,” I point out. Neeko lays on the floor for a while before she sits back up and looks at me.

“Yes. But Neeko thinks that the reason Kayn has so many attacks is because Kayn is not happy with himself. Neeko thinks Kayn is still very much blaming himself and that’s why he has the panic attacks. Kayn can’t move on and magic won’t fix that,” Neeko tells me.

“Have you?” I ask, going quite solemn as I think over her words. “Moved on I mean?”

“Maybe. Neeko still gets scared sometimes at night. Sometimes I think I hear something and I think it might be Rhaast,” Neeko admits, her colourful fingers tracing over the painfully obvious scar on her arm.

During the attack, Neeko was badly wounded by Rhaast. She needed to have a fair few stitches in her arm and they’ve left a very obvious scar. I know it upsets Kayn to see it, just like he hates to see the one on my arm.

“He’s gone for good,” I say quietly and watch as Neeko nods.

“Neeko knows that. But that day was very, very scary. If I’m not over it, Neeko thinks that it’s not surprising that Kayn also isn’t over it. Neeko’s wound has healed, but Kayn didn’t suffer from physical wounds. Kayn’s mind was hurt. My mum says those are very difficult wounds to recover from,” Neeko tells me, her voice soft and gentle.

“I just really want to help him,” I sigh. “He’s so sad right now and if I can help I feel I should.”

“Zoe does help him. Kayn’s sho’ma is always very calm when around Zoe. When Kayn has an episode, his sho’ma changes. It seems to crackle, but when Zoe is near, he calms down,” she smiles at me.

“But I don’t want him to have the episodes anymore. I want to make him happy,” I sigh over dramatically. Why does Neeko have to talk sense? “I mean lets say magic could help Cassi get her legs back, wouldn’t you want to do that for her?”

At this thought she does pause. Neeko absolutely adores Cassiopeia. She totally has a crush on her, but Cassi is straight. However they do have this weird friendship. Like Cassi I think would legit murder someone if they upset Neeko. She’s weirdly protective of her.

“Cassiopeia’s case is different. And even then, Neeko would ask her first. Neeko has a feeling Zoe isn’t going to ask Kayn about this.”

“It’s not that different though. Cassi has a tail now and would like legs back. Kayn’s head is a mess and he’d like it not to be. Magic could sort out both,” I continue on with my point. Neeko still doesn’t look convinced though.

“Zoe, I do not think this is a good plan. Not without talking with Kayn first,” she tells me. But I’m not doing that. Kayn would just say no. He says no to a lot of my ideas really. But this could really help him. Plus if I talk to him about it, it might trigger another episode and that’d make me a really bad girlfriend.

“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll talk to him,” I sigh, dropping backwards onto the floor but passing into a portal.

I’m not talking to him about this.

Instead I stand before a white door and knock on it with my hands before rocking back and forth as I wait for it to open.

“Hey. You alone?” I grin up at the large, red-headed guy standing in the doorway.

“Sure. What can I do for you? Are girls even allowed over here?”

“I’m allowed anywhere,” I brag, stepping in and looking at the wide array of weights spread out over the floor. “No Aphelios?”

“Nah. He’s doin’ homework. He’s a good student like that,” Sett laughs stepping past me and picking up some weight. I watch him move it up and down for a moment before looking back at him.

“Y’know what you said the other day? About using magic to help Kayn. Would you?” I say. His red ears twitch as he seems to think about it.

“I mean I would. Phel worries about shit a lot. But yeah, if Phel was hurt somehow and I could help him, I would. Like hell, if I could do magic like you, I’d give him his voice back,” he tells me. His voice?

“Yeah. What’s with that?” I know I’m being nosey but I do like to know things.

“Accident as a kid. Don’t tell him I told ya, but he inhaled some gas or some shit. He got super ill and was in hospital. Messed his vocal cords up real good. Ain’t been able to talk since. If I knew magic I’d fix that for him,” he says.

“What if I find a spell and I do the magic?” I suggest. His yellow eyes come to me, his lips pulling together as he seems to think on it.

“You sayin’ you could get Phel his voice back? That I could hear his voice?” The eagerness in his tone seems to get more and more obvious with every word he says.

“I mean I don’t know yet. Maybe. You think he’d like that?” I ask, and Sett’s head just starts bobbing up and down, a grin covering his face.

“I know he would.”

“It’s not a bad thing is it? You know, helping people with magic?”

“I don’t think so. Like I said the other day, an old lady my ma knows healed my leg for me. I mean something like sorting out someone’s mind or getting someone their voice back, that’s like super high-level magic. But you’re a goddess, right? So if anyone could do somethin’ like that, surely you could?” He’s almost giddy now, his weight getting dropped to his floor with a loud thud. “Like I can’t do shit like that. But you can fly and make portals.” Nodding my own head I leap into the air to be more on eye level with him.

“Right? I can do that stuff. And look, I can make things,” I point out, rubbing my hands together and creating sparkling purple stars that flutter down to his floor like glitter.

“See I ain’t ever met someone that can do magic like this. Like bits of magic sure, but nothin’ like what you can do. So surely you can do it. But if you could get Phel his voice back, damn, that’d be amazing,” Sett tells me, his eyes almost sparkling. “Like I ain’t ever heard him talk. He lost his voice before I ever met him. I always wonder about what he’d sound like, y’know?” I give a nod.

“I’ll need a spell. See I can do magic, but spells are different. They’re all together harder. People don’t even create new spells anymore. But then again magic just isn’t as it used to be. I mean we do have smartphones instead, so I guess that’s a fair trade off. And also cartoons. Didn’t have any of that when magic was more popular,” I nod. “But I might know somewhere to get spells from. But you can’t tell anyone because if Kayn finds out, I know he’ll be boring and say no.”

“Ain’t gonna tell a soul. But it won’t hurt anyone right? Like If you can try and get Phel his voice back, it’s not gonna hurt him?” Sett asks, his ears flattening down somewhat. I just wave my hand before me.

“Of course not. Trust me, after everything Kayn’s been through, the last thing I’m going to do is do something that might hurt him. Besides, I have to find a spell first. But professor Ryze has loads of old books in his office. I’ve seen them in there when he’s given me detention. I’ll just have a poke about in those.”

“How you getting into his office? Won’t it be locked?”

“Portals,” I almost sing, opening one beside me and sticking my arm through. “I can get anywhere.”

“Alright, you got this,” he grins at me. I have got this, haven’t I?


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter time :) A very guy centric chapter this one, but i figured the boys need some bonding time lol XD
> 
> Also, since the last chapter i made a small RedBubble shop featuring some of my fave league ships :) If you're interested in checking it out, the link is here : https://www.redbubble.com/people/Archer206/shop
> 
> Hope you all continue to enjoy the story ^_^

Kayn

“Why do I have to be the main one again?” I moan, resting my forehead on a locker.

“I’m in a side group again. That doesn’t seem fair,” Rakan sighs nearby, his talons clacking over the tiled floor of the changing room. I just lean back before banging my head against my locker again.

“I mean, you are pretty good at cheerleading,” Ezreal points out from somewhere behind me. I know I am. Of course I’m good at it. It’s just memorising steps and having good hand eye co-ordination. And I definitely have that. But still, I don’t like performing. I do not like having to stand in front of the school while wearing glittery stars on my clothes.

“Of course I’m good at it,” I half brag while still resting on my locker. “But it doesn’t mean I want to be the one doing a solo routine.”

“I’d like that. We should swap,” Rakan suggests. Sighing I push myself back up and turn to look at him.

“Rakan, you dropped your baton in your eye today,” I remind him, my voice dry. There’s already a red ring forming on his face. He’s absolutely going to have a black eye come tomorrow.

“Sure. But I still think I should get to do a solo performance. Just no batons,” he laughs. Rakan enjoys being a cheerleader far more than I do. Then again he actually auditioned and didn’t just get pulled into this.

“Then you’ll need to convince Ahri you’re better than Kayn,” Ezreal remarks, already starting to remove his uniform. I glance back at Rakan, his eyes narrowing at me.

“Good luck with that,” I tell him, watching his shoulders drop and his bottom lip stick out.

“I reckon I could be better than you,” he says. Shaking my head I start to get changed, taking my jacket off and folding it up into my bag when Ezreal steps closer to us both, his voice suddenly a lot lower.

“What do you guys think of the new students?” He asks hurriedly. I just glance at him but Rakan just seems to get excited.

“I like those moon twins. They seem nice. Not a fan of Jayce though. He seems super obnoxious. Not a fan of the vastayan guy either. He’s too – whats the word? – Impressive. Like have you seen the way the girls look at him?”

“He’s gay. You realise that right?” I point out.

“Nah, I don’t think so. Not the way he flirts with the girls. Gotta be bi,” Rakan nods.

“Whatever. My point is he has a boyfriend,” I remind him before ignoring them both and taking off my undershirt.

“What about Sylas? He’s in your year Rakan. What do you know about him? Because the girls seem to like him too,” Ezreal almost pleads for information. Sylas? Do I even know that guy? Has Zoe accosted him at some point? It’s sad that my reference for whether I’ve met any of the new starters is if my girlfriend has thrown sparkles at them.

“Sylas? Er, he’s a guy I guess. Keeps to himself. I’ll admit I haven’t seen many girls chatting to him though. Not like Sett. The girls all seem to love him,” Rakan pouts.

“You are so jealous,” I chuckle to myself as I pull my school shirt back on.

“I’m not jealous,” Rakan seems to splutter. “But seriously he walks around in a school shirt that’s gotta be way too tight for the uniform rules and flexes his arms and half the student body suddenly go weak at the knees.”

“Hey, Rakan, back to me here. I need to know about Sylas,” Ezreal clicks his fingers to attract the other guy’s attention. Why am I stuck practicing with these two? Why are they the only other guys on the cheerleading squad?

“I’m telling you, no one cares about Sylas. Sett is the bigger problem,” Rakan continues.

“I’m going to take a stab in the dark that Lux has been chatting to Sylas,” I remark, shutting the locker in front of me and grabbing for my school bag.

“I never said that. Why? Have you seen something? Have you heard something?” Ezreal asks, almost bouncing around in front of me. I scowl at him till be scurries backwards, wringing his hands.

“No. You’re just about as subtle as a sledgehammer Ezreal. Anyway, I’m going to leave you guys with whatever bullshit you’re fretting about,” I shrug, heading from the changing rooms.

“You’d fret too if Zoe was talking to some other guy,” Rakan calls behind me causing me to stop and just start to laugh. And I mean really laugh. I turn around to face him, barely able to get my words out.

“Zoe? Rakan, you find me another guy that’d be interested in her levels of crazy. She’s lucky she found me. She sure as hell isn’t finding someone else let alone in this school,” I splutter, still laughing to myself. “Speaking of which I need to go and find her. Enjoy your worrying.”

I’m still chuckling to myself as I head out of the changing rooms. Zoe with another guy? Does Ezreal not realise how much she was crushing on him and he never wanted any of that? Does he really think she can con someone else into this deal?

I’m hanging around in the gym when Neeko bounds over to me. Alone.

“If you tell me she’s got her zip stuck in her hair again, I’m not dealing with that for a second time,” I say flatly. Neeko just shakes her head.

“No. Zoe said she had to go and jumped into a portal,” Neeko tells me, leaping up beside me. Odd. Pulling my phone from my pocket I check it but there isn’t a single message from her. Which again is odd given she messages me every thirty seconds normally.

“She wasn’t sad or anything was she?” I look to Neeko, watching her shake her head.

“No. Zoe seemed very happy. She said she needed to go and do things. Then she squealed before vanishing. Zoe was definitely not sad.”

“Why am I even questioning this? This is Zoe after all,” I sigh. Like anything my girlfriend does is normal.

I walk with Neeko back to the dorms before she bounces off to be with Taliyah and Sona. At least I get a quiet evening I guess. I do message Zoe and let her know I’ll likely be training later over on the field if she wants to stop being weird for half an hour and appear. Not that she needs an invite.

Once in my room I start to get changed out of my uniform and into something comfier when I’m aware of a draft behind me from my door. Confused I turn around to see Talon softly closing my door. I’m not sure who jumps the most. Me from seeing him in my room or him from when I suddenly shout out.

“What are you doing?” I demand once I have my breath back. For a second his face flushes before he steps closer.

“I need to ask you a question,” he says hurriedly.

“If it’s how to assassinate someone from a heart attack, you don’t need help. You got that covered,” I say, still getting my breath back. He rolls his eyes at me.

“Don’t be an ass. It’s a serious question ok? Is Rakan next door?”

“Not unless he’s learned portals from my girlfriend. I left him in the changing rooms whining about Sett,” I say, pulling a tank top over my head. Feels weird to wear these and not have to worry about my arms. A familiar shiver runs up my spine but I calm my breathing down, focusing on Talon. He looks pretty serious about something.

“Look ok, I just want some advice. You’re my friend, I figured you could help,” Talon continues. “But it’s embarrassing so I don’t want Rakan hearing.”

“Embarrassing?”

“Sort of. I need you to promise not to laugh,” he admits, his cheeks flushing pink.

“Sure,” I shrug, unable to keep the smirk off my face. Of course he sees this. His scowl telling me that much, but he still continues.

“How do you hug Zoe?” He asks, his voice dropping in volume with each word until I can barely hear him by the end.

“Huh? Zoe?” I check I heard right. God I hope I heard right. It’s not like I hug anyone else.

“Yeah,” he admits, his face slowly turning redder. “Not like when it’s just the two of you. But when you’re out in public?”

“I put my arm around her. She’s normally attached to my side somewhere. It’s not like I have to reach far,” I shrug, turning from him and hunting through one of my drawers for my loose training trousers.

“But, don’t you worry people are looking?” He asks, his voice still super soft.

“This is about Varus isn’t it?”

“It’s not like I’m dating anyone else. It’s just, sometimes when we’re out with you guys, there are times I think it’d be sort of nice to put my arm around him for once. But I’m too nervous to do it in case it looks dumb. But you do it to Zoe with no issues and you’re way more emotionless than I am. So how can you do it and I can’t?” He asks. Ok, I’ll let that jab slide.

“Simple. I want to hug her. I like to have my arms around her. Even though she’s super crazy, she’s pretty nice to hug. Like no one in our group is going to care Talon. I mean, what brought this on?” I ask, watching him glance away, his dark hood slipping further over his eyes.

“This is going to sound so dumb,” he sighs, one of his hands slightly pulling on his hood. “When we went out the other day with Sett and Aphelios, they were being really…I don’t know, loving with each other? Is that even the right word? I don’t know. See when I’m with you and Ekko, you guys tend to hug your girlfriends. Like you’re the guys I guess. But Sett and Aphelios are both guys too and I don’t know. They act like you lot do.”

“Because they’re a couple too. Also, Ekko hardly ever hugs Taliyah. It takes him like half an hour to get his arm around her shoulder as he tries to be subtle. Seriously, that girl can do better,” I smirk. “And you and Varus do shit like that. Don’t pretend you don’t.”

“But it’s always him. Never me,” he continues. Clearly this is bugging him. “I don’t know I just assumed it was because we were both guys that I felt dumb doing it, but Aphelios and Sett are the same as us and they act like you guys all do.”

“Talon, trust me on this, no one’s relationship is like mine,” I laugh before heading into my bathroom to continue getting changed.

“But it seems to come so naturally to other people. Like Lux and Ezreal. He’s romantic to her,” Talon continues to moan.

“Ezreal’s a little dork. Again, Lux can do better. You need to set your sights on better relationships,” I call back through.

“So what you’re saying is, that with the straight couples in this school, the girls can do better than the guys they’re with?” Talon asks as I’m pulling my training trousers on.

“Exactly,” I say.

Wait…

Leaning through my wall, I look at my friend as he stands in my room, a smug grin now on his face.

“She cannot do better than me. No one else would put up with her shit,” I point at him before stepping back through the wall and into the bathroom. “Have you spoken to Varus about this?”

“And say what? I don’t know if I’m allowed to hug you in public?”

“Yeah. Say exactly that and ask him what he thinks.”

“I can’t say that to him. He’ll think I’m weird. God I don’t know why I’m having so many hang-ups over this.”

“Because you have hang-ups over everything. And if he thinks you’re weird then he thinks you’re weird. He’s not likely to finish with you over that. I think my girlfriend is weird as all hell and I’m still dating her,” I mutter, running a brush through my long hair. Wonder why she vanished after practice like that? And to not message me? She better not be up to something dumb. Because this has all the hallmarks of her being up to something I’ll find crazy and will say no to.

“You think I should mention it to him?” He asks, screwing his lips together as I head back into my room. I nod my head before checking where I’d thrown my phone onto my bed. Still no message from Zoe. She is absolutely doing something dumb.

“Firstly, I don’t think you should have an issue. But given you do, then maybe you do need to chat with him. That way he can tell you you’re being dumb instead of me telling you that. And maybe you’ll listen to him more,” I smirk over at him.

“I’m really bad at being in a relationship,” he sighs, his shoulders dropping.

“Nah, I’m sure you’re not. You’re just shy Talon. That’s all. You and Varus have a perfectly normal relationship,” I tell him, my eyes catching on something on one of my shelves that was not there when I went to school this morning. “I on the other hand am dating a moron.” I step over to the small pink rabbit toy sitting besides some of my schoolbooks. Giving a sigh, I move the toy over to my desk. At least that way I’ll remember to return it to her tomorrow.

“When did she put that there?” Talon asks like I’m supposed to have any idea what my girlfriend gets up to.

“Who knows? Could have been after practice. Could have been between lessons. Could have even been at night while I was asleep. Talon, I’ve given up questioning all of her bullshit. Trust me, if the biggest worry in your relationship is feeling awkward about putting your arm around Varus’ shoulders, you’re doing far better than me. My biggest worry is walking into my room one day and finding an alpaca or something else dumb just left here,” I tell him. I’d say it’s an exaggeration but I don’t think it is. Zoe is absolutely liable to do something like that. “Also I’m heading out to do some practice. You want to come?” I wander over and pull my training staff out from where I keep it under my bed. I’m not surprised at all to find flecks of pink glitter lingering over the floor. For an immortal goddess she’s lousy at cleaning up her own messes.

“Sure. I can whine to you more about how hard being in a relationship is,” he sighs, his hands going into his jacket pockets.

“Awesome. And I will just throw back at you that unless you’re dating Zoe, you have no room for complaining,” I smirk. I do wonder what she’s up to. Because the lack of messages and I know she’s up to something but I have no idea what. And with Zoe, that is terrifying.


End file.
